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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1315-0.txt b/1315-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d213143 --- /dev/null +++ b/1315-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5517 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1315 *** + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED ESSAYS + +by + +Thomas Henry Huxley + + + + Note: The notes at the end of the book were originally + referenced by page number. I have instead inserted numbers + within the text in the format [xx] and cross-referenced + these to the appropriate notes.--D.L. + + + + + +Edited, with introduction and notes by Ada L. F. Snell Associate +Professor Of English Mount Holyoke College + +Riverside College Classics Copyright 1909 + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +INTRODUCTION + +The Life of Huxley + +Subject-matter, Structure, and Style of Essays + +Suggested Studies + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION + +ON A PIECE OF CHALK + +THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION + +THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION + +ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE + +ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS + +NOTES + + + + +PREFACE + + +The purpose of the following selections is to present to students +of English a few of Huxley's representative essays. Some of these +selections are complete; others are extracts. In the latter case, +however, they are not extracts in the sense of being incomplete wholes, +for each selection given will be found to have, in Aristotle's +phrase, "a beginning, a middle, and an end." That they are complete in +themselves, although only parts of whole essays, is due to the fact that +Huxley, in order to make succeeding material clear, often prepares +the way with a long and careful definition. Such is the nature of the +extract A Liberal Education, in reality a definition to make distinct +and forcible his ideas on the shortcomings of English schools. Such a +definition, also, is The Method of Scientific Investigation. + +The footnotes are those of the author. Other notes on the text have been +included for the benefit of schools inadequately equipped with reference +books. It is hoped, however, that the notes may be found not to be so +numerous as to prevent the training of the student in a self-reliant and +scholarly use of dictionaries and reference books; it is hoped, also, +that they may serve to stimulate him to trace out for himself more +completely any subject connected with the text in which he may feel a +peculiar interest. It should be recognized that notes are of value only +as they develop power to read intelligently. If unintelligently relied +upon, they may even foster indifference and lazy mental habits. + +I wish to express my obligation to Miss Flora Bridges, whose careful +reading of the manuscript has been most helpful, and to Professor Clara +F. Stevens, the head of the English Department at Mount Holyoke College, +whose very practical aid made this volume possible. + +A. L. F. S. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + + + +I -- THE LIFE OF HUXLEY + + +Of Huxley's life and of the forces which moulded his thought, the +Autobiography gives some account; but many facts which are significant +are slighted, and necessarily the later events of his life are omitted. +To supplement the story as given by him is the purpose of this sketch. +The facts for this account are gathered entirely from the Life and +Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, by his son. For a real acquaintance +with Huxley, the student should consult this source for himself; he will +count the reading of the Life and Letters among the rare pleasures which +have come to him through books. + +Thomas Henry Huxley was born on May 4, 1825. His autobiography gives a +full account of his parents, his early boyhood, and his education. Of +formal education, Huxley had little; but he had the richer schooling +which nature and life give an eager mind. He read widely; he talked +often with older people; he was always investigating the why of things. +He kept a journal in which he noted thoughts gathered from books, and +ideas on the causes of certain phenomena. In this journal he frequently +wrote what he had done and had set himself to do in the way of +increasing his knowledge. Self-conducted, also, was his later education +at the Charing Cross Hospital. Here, like Stevenson in his university +days, Huxley seemed to be idle, but in reality, he was always busy on +his own private end. So constantly did he work over the microscope that +the window at which he sat came to be dubbed by his fellow students "The +Sign of the Head and Microscope." Moreover, in his regular courses at +Charing Cross, he seems to have done work sufficiently notable to be +recognized by several prizes and a gold medal. + +Of his life after the completion of his medical course, of his +search for work, of his appointment as assistant surgeon on board the +Rattlesnake, and of his scientific work during the four years' cruise, +Huxley gives a vivid description in the autobiography. As a result of +his investigations on this voyage, he published various essays which +quickly secured for him a position in the scientific world as a +naturalist of the first rank. A testimony of the value of this work was +his election to membership in the Royal Society. + +Although Huxley had now, at the age of twenty-six, won distinction +in science, he soon discovered that it was not so easy to earn bread +thereby. Nevertheless, to earn a living was most important if he were to +accomplish the two objects which he had in view. He wished, in the first +place, to marry Miss Henrietta Heathorn of Sydney, to whom he had become +engaged when on the cruise with the Rattlesnake; his second object +was to follow science as a profession. The struggle to find something +connected with science which would pay was long and bitter; and only a +resolute determination to win kept Huxley from abandoning it altogether. +Uniform ill-luck met him everywhere. He has told in his autobiography +of his troubles with the Admiralty in the endeavor to get his papers +published, and of his failure there. He applied for a position to teach +science in Toronto; being unsuccessful in this attempt, he applied +successively for various professorships in the United Kingdom, and in +this he was likewise unsuccessful. Some of his friends urged him to hold +out, but others thought the fight an unequal one, and advised him to +emigrate to Australia. He himself was tempted to practice medicine in +Sydney; but to give up his purpose seemed to him like cowardice. On the +other hand, to prolong the struggle indefinitely when he might quickly +earn a living in other ways seemed like selfishness and an injustice to +the woman to whom he had been for a long time engaged. Miss Heathorn, +however, upheld him in his determination to pursue science; and his +sister also, he writes, cheered him by her advice and encouragement to +persist in the struggle. Something of the man's heroic temper may be +gathered from a letter which he wrote to Miss Heathorn when his affairs +were darkest. "However painful our separation may be," he says, "the +spectacle of a man who had given up the cherished purpose of his life +. . . would, before long years were over our heads, be infinitely more +painful." He declares that he is hemmed in by all sorts of difficulties. +"Nevertheless the path has shown itself a fair one, neither more +difficult nor less so than most paths in life in which a man of energy +may hope to do much if he believes in himself, and is at peace within." +Thus relieved in mind, he makes his decision in spite of adverse fate. +"My course of life is taken, I will not leave London--I WILL make myself +a name and a position as well as an income by some kind of pursuit +connected with science which is the thing for which Nature has fitted me +if she has ever fitted any one for anything." + +But suddenly the long wait, the faith in self, were justified, and the +turning point came. "There is always a Cape Horn in one's life that +one either weathers or wrecks one's self on," he writes to his sister. +"Thank God, I think I may say I have weathered mine--not without a good +deal of damage to spars and rigging though, for it blew deuced hard on +the other side." In 1854 a permanent lectureship was offered him at the +Government School of Mines; also, a lectureship at St. Thomas' Hospital; +and he was asked to give various other lecture courses. He thus found +himself able to establish the home for which he had waited eight years. +In July, 1855, he was married to Miss Heathorn. + +The succeeding years from 1855 to 1860 were filled with various kinds +of work connected with science: original investigation, printing of +monographs, and establishing of natural history museums. His advice +concerning local museums is interesting and characteristically +expressed. "It [the local museum if properly arranged] will tell both +natives and strangers exactly what they want to know, and possess great +scientific interest and importance. Whereas the ordinary lumber-room +of clubs from New Zealand, Hindu idols, sharks' teeth, mangy monkeys, +scorpions, and conch shells--who shall describe the weary inutility of +it? It is really worse than nothing, because it leads the unwary to look +for objects of science elsewhere than under their noses. What they want +to know is that their 'America is here,' as Wilhelm Meister has it." +During this period, also, he began his lectures to workingmen, calling +them Peoples' Lectures. "POPULAR lectures," he said, "I hold to be an +abomination unto the Lord." Working-men attended these lectures in great +numbers, and to them Huxley seemed to be always able to speak at his +best. His purpose in giving these lectures should be expressed in his +own words: "I want the working class to understand that Science and her +ways are great facts for them--that physical virtue is the base of all +other, and that they are to be clean and temperate and all the rest--not +because fellows in black and white ties tell them so, but because there +are plain and patent laws which they must obey 'under penalties.'" + +Toward the close of 1859, Darwin's "Origin of Species" was published. It +raised a great outcry in England; and Huxley immediately came forward as +chief defender of the faith therein set forth. He took part in debates +on this subject, the most famous of which was the one between himself +and Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford. The Bishop concluded his speech +by turning to Huxley and asking, "Was it through his grandfather or +grandmother that he claimed descent from a monkey?" Huxley, as is +reported by an eye-witness, "slowly and deliberately arose. A slight +tall figure, stern and pale, very quiet and grave, he stood before us +and spoke those tremendous words. . . . He was not ashamed to have a +monkey for an ancestor; but he would be ashamed to be connected with a +man who used great gifts to obscure the truth." Another story indicates +the temper of that time. Carlyle, whose writing had strongly influenced +Huxley, and whom Huxley had come to know, could not forgive him for his +attitude toward evolution. One day, years after the publication of Man's +Place in Nature, Huxley, seeing Carlyle on the other side of the street, +a broken, pathetic figure, walked over and spoke to him. The old man +merely remarked, "You're Huxley, aren't you? the man that says we are +all descended from monkeys," and passed on. Huxley, however, saw nothing +degrading to man's dignity in the theory of evolution. In a wonderfully +fine sentence he gives his own estimate of the theory as it affects +man's future on earth. "Thoughtful men once escaped from the blinding +influences of traditional prejudices, will find in the lowly stock +whence man has sprung the best evidence of the splendour of his +capacities; and will discover, in his long progress through the past, a +reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a nobler future." As +a result of all these controversies on The Origin of Species and of +investigations to uphold Darwin's theory, Huxley wrote his first book, +already mentioned, Man's Place in Nature. + +To read a list of the various kinds of work which Huxley was doing +from 1870 to 1875 is to be convinced of his abundant energy and many +interests. At about this time Huxley executed the plan which he had had +in mind for a long time, the establishment of laboratories for the +use of students. His object was to furnish a more exact preliminary +training. He complains that the student who enters the medical school +is "so habituated to learn only from books, or oral teaching, that the +attempt to learn from things and to get his knowledge at first hand is +something new and strange." To make this method of teaching successful +in the schools, Huxley gave practical instruction in laboratory work to +school-masters. + +"If I am to be remembered at all," Huxley once wrote, "I would rather it +should be as a man who did his best to help the people than by any +other title." Certainly as much of his time as could be spared from his +regular work was given to help others. His lectures to workingmen and +school-masters have already been mentioned. In addition, he lectured to +women on physiology and to children on elementary science. In order +to be of greater service to the children, Huxley, in spite of delicate +health, became a member of the London School Board. His immediate object +was "to temper book-learning with something of the direct knowledge of +Nature." His other purposes were to secure a better physical training +for children and to give them a clearer understanding of social and +moral law. He did not believe, on the one hand, in overcrowding the +curriculum, but, on the other hand, he "felt that all education should +be thrown open to all that each man might know to what state in life he +was called." Another statement of his purpose and beliefs is given by +Professor Gladstone, who says of his work on the board: "He resented +the idea that schools were to train either congregations for churches or +hands for factories. He was on the Board as a friend of children. What +he sought to do for the child was for the child's sake, that it might +live a fuller, truer, worthier life." + +The immense amount of work which Huxley did in these years told very +seriously on his naturally weak constitution. It became necessary for +him finally for two successive years to stop work altogether. In 1872 +he went to the Mediterranean and to Egypt. This was a holiday full of +interest for a man like Huxley who looked upon the history of the world +and man's place in the world with a keen scientific mind. Added to this +scientific bent of mind, moreover, Huxley had a deep appreciation for +the picturesque in nature and life. Bits of description indicate +his enjoyment in this vacation. He writes of his entrance to the +Mediterranean, "It was a lovely morning, and nothing could be grander +than Ape Hill on one side and the Rock on the other, looking like great +lions or sphinxes on each side of a gateway." In Cairo, Huxley found +much to interest him in archaeology, geology, and the every-day life of +the streets. At the end of a month, he writes that he is very well and +very grateful to Old Nile for all that he has done for him, not the +least "for a whole universe of new thoughts and pictures of life." The +trip, however, did no lasting good. In 1873 Huxley was again very ill, +but was under such heavy costs at this time that another vacation was +impossible. At this moment, a critical one in his life, some of his +close scientific friends placed to his credit twenty-one hundred pounds +to enable him to take the much needed rest. Darwin wrote to Huxley +concerning the gift: "In doing this we are convinced that we act for the +public interest." He assured Huxley that the friends who gave this felt +toward him as a brother. "I am sure that you will return this feeling +and will therefore be glad to give us the opportunity of aiding you in +some degree, as this will be a happiness to us to the last day of +our lives." The gift made it possible for Huxley to take another long +vacation, part of which was spent with Sir Joseph Hooker, a noted +English botanist, visiting the volcanoes of Auvergne. After this trip +he steadily improved in health, with no other serious illness for ten +years. + +In 1876 Huxley was invited to visit America and to deliver the inaugural +address at Johns Hopkins University. In July of this year accordingly, +in company with his wife, he crossed to New York. Everywhere Huxley +was received with enthusiasm, for his name was a very familiar one. Two +quotations from his address at Johns Hopkins are especially worthy of +attention as a part of his message to Americans. "It has been my fate to +see great educational funds fossilise into mere bricks and mortar in the +petrifying springs of architecture, with nothing left to work them. +A great warrior is said to have made a desert and called it peace. +Trustees have sometimes made a palace and called it a university." + +The second quotation is as follows:-- + +I cannot say that I am in the slightest degree impressed by your bigness +or your material resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, territory +does not make a nation. The great issue, about which hangs true +sublimity, and the terror of overhanging fate, is, what are you going to +do with all these things? . . . + +The one condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral worth +and intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot +give these, but it can cherish them and bring them to the front in +whatever station of society they are to be found, and the universities +ought to be, and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the +nation. + + +After the return from America, the same innumerable occupations were +continued. It would be impossible in short space even to enumerate all +Huxley's various publications of the next ten years. His work, however, +changed gradually from scientific investigation to administrative +work, not the least important of which was the office of Inspector of +Fisheries. A second important office was the Presidency of the Royal +Society. Of the work of this society Sir Joseph Hooker writes: "The +duties of the office are manifold and heavy; they include attendance at +all the meetings of the Fellows, and of the councils, committees, and +sub-committees of the Society, and especially the supervision of the +printing and illustrating all papers on biological subjects that are +published in the Society's Transactions and Proceedings; the latter +often involving a protracted correspondence with the authors. To this +must be added a share in the supervision of the staff officers, of the +library and correspondence, and the details of house-keeping." All the +work connected with this and many other offices bespeaks a life too +hard-driven and accounts fully for the continued ill-health which +finally resulted in a complete break-down. + +Huxley had always advocated that the age of sixty was the time for +"official death," and had looked forward to a peaceful "Indian summer." +With this object in mind and troubled by increasing ill-health, he began +in 1885 to give up his work. But to live even in comparative idleness, +after so many years of activity, was difficult. "I am sure," he says, +"that the habit of incessant work into which we all drift is as bad +in its way as dram-drinking. In time you cannot be comfortable without +stimulus." But continued bodily weakness told upon him to the extent +that all work became distasteful. An utter weariness with frequent +spells of the blues took possession of him; and the story of his life +for some years is the story of the long pursuit of health in England, +Switzerland, and especially in Italy. + +Although Huxley was wretchedly ill during this period, he wrote letters +which are good to read for their humor and for their pictures of foreign +cities. Rome he writes of as an idle, afternoony sort of place from +which it is difficult to depart. He worked as eagerly over the historic +remains in Rome as he would over a collection of geological specimens. +"I begin to understand Old Rome pretty well and I am quite learned in +the Catacombs, which suit me, as a kind of Christian fossils out of +which one can reconstruct the body of the primitive Church." Florence, +for a man with a conscience and ill-health, had too many picture +galleries. "They are a sore burden to the conscience if you don't go +to see them, and an awful trial to the back and legs if you do," he +complained. He found Florence, nevertheless, a lovely place and full +of most interesting things to see and do. His letters with reference to +himself also are vigorously and entertainingly expressed. He writes in +a characteristic way of his growing difficulty with his hearing. "It +irritates me not to hear; it irritates me still more to be spoken to as +if I were deaf, and the absurdity of being irritated on the last ground +irritates me still more." And again he writes in a more hopeful strain, +"With fresh air and exercise and careful avoidance of cold and night air +I am to be all right again." He then adds: "I am not fond of coddling; +but as Paddy gave his pig the best corner in his cabin--because 'shure, +he paid the rint'--I feel bound to take care of myself as a household +animal of value, to say nothing of other points." + +Although he was never strong after this long illness, Huxley began +in 1889 to be much better. The first sign of returning vigor was the +eagerness with which he entered into a controversy with Gladstone. +Huxley had always enjoyed a mental battle; and some of his fiercest +tilts were with Gladstone. He even found the cause of better health in +this controversy, and was grateful to the "Grand Old Man" for making +home happy for him. From this time to his death, Huxley wrote a number +of articles on politics, science, and religion, many of which were +published in the volume called Controverted Questions. The main value of +these essays lies in the fact that Huxley calls upon men to give clear +reasons for the faith which they claim as theirs, and makes, as a friend +wrote of him, hazy thinking and slovenly, half-formed conclusions seem +the base thing they really are. + +The last years of Huxley's life were indeed the longed-for Indian +summer. Away from the noise of London at Eastbourne by the sea, he spent +many happy hours with old-time friends and in his garden, which was +a great joy to him. His large family of sons and daughters and +grandchildren brought much cheer to his last days. Almost to the end he +was working and writing for publication. Three days before his death +he wrote to his old friend, Hooker, that he didn't feel at all like +"sending in his checks" and hoped to recover. He died very quietly on +June 29, 1895. That he met death with the same calm faith and strength +with which he had met life is indicated by the lines which his wife +wrote and which he requested to be his epitaph:-- + +Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep; For still He giveth His +beloved sleep, And if an endless sleep He wills, so best. + + +To attempt an analysis of Huxley's character, unique and bafflingly +complex as it is, is beyond the scope of this sketch; but to give +only the mere facts of his life is to do an injustice to the vivid +personality of the man as it is revealed in his letters. All his human +interest in people and things--pets, and flowers, and family--brightens +many pages of the two ponderous volumes. Now one reads of his grief over +some backward-going plant, or over some garden tragedy, as "A lovely +clematis in full flower, which I had spent hours in nailing up, has just +died suddenly. I am more inconsolable than Jonah!" Now one is amused +with a nonsense letter to one of his children, and again with an +account of a pet. "I wish you would write seriously to M----. She is +not behaving well to Oliver. I have seen handsomer kittens, but few more +lively, and energetically destructive. Just now he scratched away at +something M---- says cost 13s. 6d. a yard and reduced more or less of it +to combings. M---- therefore excludes him from the dining-room and +all those opportunities of higher education which he would have in MY +house." Frequently one finds a description of some event, so vividly +done that the mere reading of it seems like a real experience. An +account of Tennyson's burial in Westminster is a typical bit of +description:-- + +Bright sunshine streamed through the windows of the nave, while the +choir was in half gloom, and as each shaft of light illuminated the +flower-covered bier as it slowly travelled on, one thought of the bright +succession of his works between the darkness before and the darkness +after. I am glad to say that the Royal Society was represented by four +of its chief officers, and nine of the commonalty, including myself. +Tennyson has a right to that, as the first poet since Lucretius who has +understood the drift of science. + + +No parts of the Life and Letters are more enjoyable than those +concerning the "Happy Family," as a friend of Huxley's names his +household. His family of seven children found their father a most +engaging friend and companion. He could tell them wonderful sea stories +and animal stories and could draw fascinating pictures. His son writes +of how when he was ill with scarlet fever he used to look forward to his +father's home-coming. "The solitary days--for I was the first victim in +the family--were very long, and I looked forward with intense interest +to one half-hour after dinner, when he would come up and draw scenes +from the history of a remarkable bull-terrier and his family that went +to the seaside in a most human and child-delighting manner. I have +seldom suffered a greater disappointment than when, one evening, I fell +asleep just before this fairy half-hour, and lost it out of my life." + +The account of the comradeship between Huxley and his wife reads like +a good old-time romance. He was attracted to her at first by +her "simplicity and directness united with an unusual degree of +cultivation," Huxley's son writes. On her he depended for advice in his +work, and for companionship at home and abroad when wandering in search +of health in Italy and Switzerland. When he had been separated from her +for some time, he wrote, "Nobody, children or anyone else, can be to me +what you are. Ulysses preferred his old woman to immortality, and +this absence has led me to see that he was as wise in that as in other +things." Again he writes, "Against all trouble (and I have had my share) +I weigh a wife-comrade 'trew and fest' in all emergencies." + +The letters also give one a clear idea of the breadth of Huxley's +interests, particularly of his appreciation of the various forms of art. +Huxley believed strongly in the arts as a refining and helpful influence +in education. He keenly enjoyed good music. Professor Hewes writes of +him that one breaking in upon him in the afternoon at South Kensington +would not infrequently be met "with a snatch of some melody of Bach's +fugue." He also liked good pictures, and always had among his friends +well-known artists, as Alma-Tadema, Sir Frederick Leighton, and +Burne-Jones. He read poetry widely, and strongly advocated the teaching +of poetry in English schools. As to poetry, his own preferences are +interesting. Wordsworth he considered too discursive; Shelley was too +diffuse; Keats, he liked for pure beauty, Browning for strength, and +Tennyson for his understanding of modern science; but most frequently of +all he read Milton and Shakespeare. + +As to Huxley's appearance, and as to the impression which his +personality made upon others, the description of a friend, Mr. G. W. +Smalley, presents him with striking force. "The square forehead, the +square jaw, the tense lines of the mouth, the deep flashing dark +eyes, the impression of something more than strength he gave you, an +impression of sincerity, of solid force, of immovability, yet with the +gentleness arising from the serene consciousness of his strength--all +this belonged to Huxley and to him alone. The first glance magnetized +his audience. The eyes were those of one accustomed to command, of one +having authority, and not fearing on occasion to use it. The hair swept +carelessly away from the broad forehead and grew rather long behind, +yet the length did not suggest, as it often does, effeminacy. He was +masculine in everything--look, gesture, speech. Sparing of gesture, +sparing of emphasis, careless of mere rhetorical or oratorical art, +he had nevertheless the secret of the highest art of all, whether in +oratory or whatever else--he had simplicity." + +Simplicity, directness, sincerity,--all these qualities describe Huxley; +but the one attribute which distinguishes him above all others is love +of truth. A love of truth, as the phrase characterizes Huxley, would +necessarily produce a scholarly habit of mind. It was the zealous search +for truth which determined his method of work. In science, Huxley would +"take at second hand nothing for which he vouched in teaching." Some one +reproached him for wasting time verifying what another had already done. +"If that is his practice," he commented, "his work will never live." The +same motive made him a master of languages. To be able to read at first +hand the writings of other nations, he learned German, French, Italian, +and Greek. One of the chief reasons for learning to read Greek was to +see for himself if Aristotle really did say that the heart had only +three chambers--an error, he discovered, not of Aristotle, but of the +translator. It was, moreover, the scholar in Huxley which made him +impatient of narrow, half-formed, foggy conclusions. His own work has +all the breadth and freedom and universality of the scholar, but it has, +also, a quality equally distinctive of the scholar, namely, an infinite +precision in the matter of detail. + +If love of truth made Huxley a scholar, it made him, also, a courageous +fighter. Man's first duty, as he saw it, was to seek the truth; +his second was to teach it to others, and, if necessary, to contend +valiantly for it. To fail to teach what you honestly know to be true, +because it may harm your reputation, or even because it may give pain to +others, is cowardice. "I am not greatly concerned about any reputation," +Huxley writes to his wife, "except that of being entirely honest and +straightforward." Regardless of warnings that the publication of Man's +Place in Nature would ruin his career, Huxley passed on to others what +nature had revealed to him. He was regardless, also, of the confusion +and pain which his view would necessarily bring to those who had been +nourished in old traditions. To stand with a man or two and to do battle +with the world on the score of its old beliefs, has never been an easy +task since the world began. Certainly it required fearlessness and +determination to wrestle with the prejudices against science in the +middle of the nineteenth century--how much may be gathered from the +reading of Darwin's Life and Letters. The attitude of the times toward +science has already been indicated. One may be allowed to give one more +example from the reported address of a clergyman. "O ye men of science, +ye men of science, leave us our ancestors in paradise, and you may have +yours in Zoological gardens." The war was, for the most part, between +the clergy and the men of science, but it is necessary to remember +that Huxley fought not against Christianity, but against dogma; that +he fought not against the past,--he had great reverence for the +accomplishment of the past,--but against unwillingness to accept the new +truth of the present. + +A scholar of the highest type and a fearless defender of true and honest +thinking, Huxley certainly was: but the quality which gives meaning to +his work, which makes it live, is a certain human quality due to the +fact that Huxley was always keenly alive to the relation of science to +the problems of life. For this reason, he was not content with the +mere acquirement of knowledge; and for this reason, also, he could not +quietly wait until the world should come to his way of thinking. Much +of the time, therefore, which he would otherwise naturally have spent +in research, he spent in contending for and in endeavoring to popularize +the facts of science. It was this desire to make his ideas prevail +that led Huxley to work for a mastery of the technique of speaking and +writing. He hated both, but taught himself to do both well. The end of +all his infinite pains about his writing was not because style for its +own sake is worth while, but because he saw that the only way to win +men to a consideration of his message was to make it perfectly clear and +attractive to them. Huxley's message to the people was that happiness, +usefulness, and even material prosperity depend upon an understanding +of the laws of nature. He also taught that a knowledge of the facts of +science is the soundest basis for moral law; that a clear sense of +the penalties which Nature inflicts for disobedience of her laws must +eventually be the greatest force for the purification of life. If he +was to be remembered, therefore, he desired that he should be remembered +primarily as one who had helped the people "to think truly and to live +rightly." Huxley's writing is, then, something more than a scholarly +exposition of abstruse matter; for it has been further devoted to the +increasing of man's capacity for usefulness, and to the betterment of +his life here on earth. + + + + +II -- SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + + +From the point of view of subject-matter, structure, and style, Huxley's +essays are admirably adapted to the uses of the student in English. +The themes of the essays are two, education and science. In these +two subjects Huxley earnestly sought to arouse interest and to impart +knowledge, because he believed that intelligence in these matters is +essential for the advancement of the race in strength and morality. Both +subjects, therefore, should be valuable to the student. In education, +certainly, he should be interested, since it is his main occupation, if +not his chief concern. Essays like A Liberal Education and The Principal +Subjects of Education may suggest to him the meaning of all his work, +and may suggest, also, the things which it would be well for him to +know; and, even more, a consideration of these subjects may arouse him +to a greater interest and responsibility than he usually assumes toward +his own mental equipment. Of greater interest probably will be the +subjects which deal with nature; for the ways of nature are more nearly +within the range of his real concerns than are the wherefores of study. +The story of the formation of a piece of chalk, the substance which lies +at the basis of all life, the habits of sea animals, are all subjects +the nature of which is akin to his own eager interest in the world. + +Undoubtedly the subjects about which Huxley writes will "appeal" to +the student; but it is in analysis that the real discipline lies. For +analysis Huxley's essays are excellent. They illustrate "the clear power +of exposition," and such power is, as Huxley wrote to Tyndall, the one +quality the people want,--exposition "so clear that they may think they +understand even if they don't." Huxley obtains that perfect clearness +in his own work by simple definition, by keeping steadily before his +audience his intention, and by making plain throughout his lecture a +well-defined organic structure. No X-ray machine is needful to make the +skeleton visible; it stands forth with the parts all nicely related +and compactly joined. In reference to structure, his son and biographer +writes, "He loved to visualize his object clearly. The framework of +what he wished to say would always be drawn out first." Professor Ray +Lankester also mentions Huxley's love of form. "He deals with form not +only as a mechanical engineer IN PARTIBUS (Huxley's own description of +himself), but also as an artist, a born lover of form, a character which +others recognize in him though he does not himself set it down in his +analysis." Huxley's own account of his efforts to shape his work is +suggestive. "The fact is that I have a great love and respect for my +native tongue, and take great pains to use it properly. Sometimes I +write essays half-a-dozen times before I can get them into proper shape; +and I believe I become more fastidious as I grow older." And, indeed, +there is a marked difference in firmness of structure between the +earlier essays, such as On the Educational Value of the Natural History +Sciences, written, as Huxley acknowledges, in great haste, and the +later essays, such as A Liberal Education and The Method of Scientific +Investigation. To trace and to define this difference will be most +helpful to the student who is building up a knowledge of structure for +his own use. + +According to Huxley's biographer in the Life and Letters of Thomas Henry +Huxley, the essays which represent him at his best are those published +in 1868. They are A Piece of Chalk, A Liberal Education, and On the +Physical Basis of Life. In connection with the comment on these essays +is the following quotation which gives one interesting information as to +Huxley's method of obtaining a clear style:-- + +This lecture on A Piece of Chalk together with two others delivered this +year, seems to me to mark the maturing of his style into that mastery of +clear expression for which he deliberately labored, the saying exactly +what he meant, neither too much nor too little, without confusion and +without obscurity. Have something to say, and say it, was the Duke of +Wellington's theory of style; Huxley's was to say that which has to be +said in such language that you can stand cross-examination on each +word. Be clear, though you may be convicted of error. If you are clearly +wrong, you will run up against a fact sometime and get set right. If you +shuffle with your subject, and study chiefly to use language which will +give a loophole of escape either way, there is no hope for you. + +This was the secret of his lucidity. In no one could Buffon's aphorism +on style find a better illustration, Le style c'est l'homme meme. In +him science and literature, too often divorced, were closely united; and +literature owes him a debt for importing into it so much of the highest +scientific habit of mind; for showing that truthfulness need not be +bald, and that real power lies more in exact accuracy than in luxuriance +of diction. + + +Huxley's own theory as to how clearness is to be obtained gets at the +root of the matter. "For my part, I venture to doubt the wisdom of +attempting to mould one's style by any other process than that +of striving after the clear and forcible expression of definite +conceptions; in which process the Glassian precept, first catch your +definite conception, is probably the most difficult to obey." + +Perfect clearness, above every other quality of style, certainly +is characteristic of Huxley; but clearness alone does not make +subject-matter literature. In addition to this quality, Huxley's writing +wins the reader by the racy diction, the homely illustration, the +plain, honest phrasing. All these and other qualities bring one into +an intimate relationship with his subject. A man of vast technical +learning, he is still so interested in the relation of his facts to the +problems of men that he is always able to infuse life into the driest +of subjects, in other words, to HUMANIZE his knowledge; and in the +estimation of Matthew Arnold, this is the true work of the scholar, the +highest mission of style. + + + + +III -- SUGGESTED STUDIES IN SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + + +Although fully realizing that the questions here given are only such as +are generally used everywhere by instructors in English, the editor has, +nevertheless, included them with the hope that some one may find them +helpful. + +The studies given include a few general questions and suggestions on +subject-matter, structure, and style. The questions on structure are +based on an analysis of the whole composition and of the paragraph; +those on style are based on a study of sentences and words. Such +a division of material may seem unwarranted; for, it may be urged, +firmness of structure depends, to a certain extent, upon sentence-form +and words; and clearness of style, to a large extent, upon the form of +the paragraph and whole composition. The two, certainly, cannot be in +justice separated; and especially is it true, more deeply true than the +average student can be brought to believe, that structure, "MIND, in +style" as Pater phrases it, primarily determines not only clearness, but +also such qualities of style as reserve, refinement, and simple Doric +beauty. Since, however, structure is more obviously associated with +the larger groups, and style with the smaller, the questions have been +arranged according to this division. + + +I. Suggestions for the Study of Subject-Matter. + + +1. To whom does Huxley address the essay? + +2. Can you see any adaptation of his material to his audience? + +3. How would A Piece of Chalk be differently presented if given before a +science club? + +4. Does Huxley make his subject interesting? If so, how does he +accomplish this? + +5. Is the personality of Huxley suggested by the essays? See Life and +Letters, vol. ii, p. 293. + + +II. Suggestions for the Study of Structure. + + +A. Analysis of the whole composition. + +1. State in one complete sentence the theme of the essay. + +2. Analyze the essay for the logical development of the thought. + +a. Questions on the Introduction. + +In the introduction, how does the author approach his material? + +Does he give the main points of the essay? + +Does he give his reasons for writing? + +Does he narrow his subject to one point of view? + +Is the introduction a digression? + +b. Questions on the Body. + +Can you find large groups of thought? + +Are these groups closely related to the theme and to each other? + +Do you find any digressions? + +Is the method used in developing the groups inductive or deductive? + +Is the method different in different groups? + +Are the groups arranged for good emphasis in the whole composition? + +c. Questions on the Conclusion. + +How does the author conclude the essay? + +Does the conclusion sum up the points of the essay? + +Are any new points suggested? + +Is the thought of the whole essay stated? + +Do you consider it a strong conclusion? + +3. Make out an outline which shall picture the skeleton of the essay +studied. In making the outline express the topics in the form of +complete statements, phrase the thought for clear sequence, and be +careful about such matters as spacing and punctuation. + +B. Analysis of paragraph structure. + +1. Can a paragraph be analyzed in the same manner as the whole +composition? + +2. Can you express the thought of each paragraph in a complete sentence? + +3. Can you find different points presented in the paragraph developing +the paragraph topic, as the large groups of the whole composition +develop the theme? + +4. Are the paragraphs closely related, and how are they bound together? + +5. Can any of the paragraphs be combined to advantage? + +6. Read from Barrett Wendell's English Composition the chapter on +paragraphs. Are Huxley's paragraphs constructed in accordance with the +principles given in this chapter? + +7. Is the paragraph type varied? For paragraph types, see Scott and +Denny's Paragraph Writing. + +C. Comparative study of the structure of the essay. + +1. Do you find any difference between Huxley's earlier and later +essays as regards the structure of the whole, or the structure of the +paragraph? + +2. Which essay seems to you to be most successful in structure? + +3. Has the character of the audience any influence upon the structure of +the essays? + +4. Compare the structure of one of Huxley's essays with that of some +other essay recently studied. + +5. Has the nature of the material any influence upon the structure of +the essay? + + +III. Suggestions for the Study of Style. + + +A. Exactly what do you mean by style? + +B. Questions on sentence structure. + +1. From any given essay, group together sentences which are long, short, +loose, periodic, balanced, simple, compound; note those peculiar, for +any reason, to Huxley. + +2. Stevenson says, "The one rule is to be infinitely various; to +interest, to disappoint, to surprise and still to gratify; to be ever +changing, as it were, the stitch, and yet still to give the effect of +ingenious neatness." + +Do Huxley's sentences conform to Stevenson's rule? Compare Huxley's +sentences with Stevenson's for variety in form. Is there any reason for +the difference between the form of the two writers? + +3. Does this quotation from Pater's essay on Style describe Huxley's +sentences? "The blithe, crisp sentence, decisive as a child's expression +of its needs, may alternate with the long-contending, victoriously +intricate sentence; the sentence, born with the integrity of a single +word, relieving the sort of sentence in which, if you look closely, you +can see contrivance, much adjustment, to bring a highly qualified matter +into compass at one view." + +4. How do Huxley's sentences compare with those of Ruskin, or with those +of any author recently studied? + +5. Are Huxley's sentences musical? How does an author make his sentences +musical? + +C. Questions on words. + +1. Do you find evidence of exactness, a quality which Huxley said he +labored for? + +2. Are the words general or specific in character? + +3. How does Huxley make his subject-matter attractive? + +4. From what sources does Huxley derive his words? Are they every-day +words, or more scholarly in character? + +5. Do you find any figures? Are these mainly ornamental or do they +re-enforce the thought? + +8. Are there many allusions and quotations? Can you easily recognize the +source? + +7. Pater says in his essay on Style that the literary artist "begets +a vocabulary faithful to the colouring of his own spirit, and in the +strictest sense original." Do you find that Huxley's vocabulary suggests +the man? + +8. Does Huxley seem to search for "the smooth, or winsome, or forcible +word, as such, or quite simply and honestly, for the word's adjustment +to its meaning"? + +9. Make out a list of the words and proper names in any given essay +which are not familiar to you; write out the explanation of these in the +form of notes giving any information which is interesting and relevant. + +D. General questions on style. + +1. How is Huxley's style adapted to the subject-matter? + +2. Can you explain the difference in style of the different essays by +the difference in purpose? + +3. Compare Huxley's way of saying things with some other author's way of +saying things. + +4. Huxley says of his essays to workingmen, "I only wish I had had the +sense to anticipate the run these have had here and abroad, and I would +have revised them properly. As they stand they are terribly in the +rough, from a literary point of view." + +Do you find evidences of roughness? + + + + +THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY -- AUTOBIOGRAPHY [1] + + +And when I consider, in one view, the many things . . . which I have +upon my hands, I feel the burlesque of being employed in this manner at +my time of life. But, in another view, and taking in all circumstances, +these things, as trifling as they may appear, no less than things of +greater importance, seem to be put upon me to do.--Bishop Butler to the +Duchess of Somerset. + + +The "many things" to which the Duchess's correspondent here refers are +the repairs and improvements of the episcopal seat at Auckland. I doubt +if the great apologist, greater in nothing than in the simple dignity of +his character, would have considered the writing an account of himself +as a thing which could be put upon him to do whatever circumstances +might be taken in. But the good bishop lived in an age when a man +might write books and yet be permitted to keep his private existence +to himself; in the pre-Boswellian [2] epoch, when the germ of the +photographer lay concealed in the distant future, and the interviewer +who pervades our age was an unforeseen, indeed unimaginable, birth of +time. + +At present, the most convinced believer in the aphorism "Bene qui +latuit, bene vixit,"[3] is not always able to act up to it. An +importunate person informs him that his portrait is about to be +published and will be accompanied by a biography which the importunate +person proposes to write. The sufferer knows what that means; either he +undertakes to revise the "biography" or he does not. In the former case, +he makes himself responsible; in the latter, he allows the publication +of a mass of more or less fulsome inaccuracies for which he will be +held responsible by those who are familiar with the prevalent art of +self-advertisement. On the whole, it may be better to get over the +"burlesque of being employed in this manner" and do the thing himself. + +It was by reflections of this kind that, some years ago, I was led to +write and permit the publication of the subjoined sketch. + + +I was born about eight o'clock in the morning on the 4th of May, 1825, +at Ealing, which was, at that time, as quiet a little country village as +could be found within a half-a-dozen miles of Hyde Park Corner. Now it +is a suburb of London with, I believe, 30,000 inhabitants. My father was +one of the masters in a large semi-public school which at one time had a +high reputation. I am not aware that any portents preceded my arrival +in this world, but, in my childhood, I remember hearing a traditional +account of the manner in which I lost the chance of an endowment of +great practical value. The windows of my mother's room were open, in +consequence of the unusual warmth of the weather. For the same reason, +probably, a neighbouring beehive had swarmed, and the new colony, +pitching on the window-sill, was making its way into the room when the +horrified nurse shut down the sash. If that well-meaning woman had only +abstained from her ill-timed interference, the swarm might have settled +on my lips, and I should have been endowed with that mellifluous +eloquence which, in this country, leads far more surely than worth, +capacity, or honest work, to the highest places in Church and State. +But the opportunity was lost, and I have been obliged to content myself +through life with saying what I mean in the plainest of plain language, +than which, I suppose, there is no habit more ruinous to a man's +prospects of advancement. + +Why I was christened Thomas Henry I do not know; but it is a curious +chance that my parents should have fixed for my usual denomination upon +the name of that particular Apostle with whom I have always felt +most sympathy. Physically and mentally I am the son of my mother so +completely--even down to peculiar movements of the hands, which made +their appearance in me as I reached the age she had when I noticed +them--that I can hardly find any trace of my father in myself, except an +inborn faculty for drawing, which unfortunately, in my case, has never +been cultivated, a hot temper, and that amount of tenacity of purpose +which unfriendly observers sometimes call obstinacy. + +My mother was a slender brunette, of an emotional and energetic +temperament, and possessed of the most piercing black eyes I ever saw +in a woman's head. With no more education than other women of the middle +classes in her day, she had an excellent mental capacity. Her most +distinguishing characteristic, however, was rapidity of thought. If +one ventured to suggest she had not taken much time to arrive at any +conclusion, she would say, "I cannot help it, things flash across me." +That peculiarity has been passed on to me in full strength; it has often +stood me in good stead; it has sometimes played me sad tricks, and it +has always been a danger. But, after all, if my time were to come +over again, there is nothing I would less willingly part with than my +inheritance of mother wit. + +I have next to nothing to say about my childhood. In later years my +mother, looking at me almost reproachfully, would sometimes say, "Ah! +you were such a pretty boy!" whence I had no difficulty in concluding +that I had not fulfilled my early promise in the matter of looks. In +fact, I have a distinct recollection of certain curls of which I was +vain, and of a conviction that I closely resembled that handsome, +courtly gentleman, Sir Herbert Oakley, who was vicar of our parish, and +who was as a god to us country folk, because he was occasionally visited +by the then Prince George of Cambridge. [4] I remember turning my +pinafore wrong side forwards in order to represent a surplice, and +preaching to my mother's maids in the kitchen as nearly as possible in +Sir Herbert's manner one Sunday morning when the rest of the family were +at church. That is the earliest indication I can call to mind of the +strong clerical affinities which my friend Mr. Herbert Spencer [5] +has always ascribed to me, though I fancy they have for the most part +remained in a latent state. + +My regular school training was of the briefest, perhaps fortunately, +for though my way of life has made me acquainted with all sorts and +conditions of men, from the highest to the lowest, I deliberately affirm +that the society I fell into at school was the worst I have ever known. +We boys were average lads, with much the same inherent capacity for good +and evil as any others; but the people who were set over us cared +about as much for our intellectual and moral welfare as if they +were baby-farmers. We were left to the operation of the struggle +for existence among ourselves, and bullying was the least of the ill +practices current among us. Almost the only cheerful reminiscence in +connection with the place which arises in my mind is that of a battle I +had with one of my classmates, who had bullied me until I could stand it +no longer. I was a very slight lad, but there was a wild-cat element +in me which, when roused, made up for lack of weight, and I licked +my adversary effectually. However, one of my first experiences of the +extremely rough-and-ready nature of justice, as exhibited by the course +of things in general, arose out of the fact that I--the victor--had +a black eye, while he--the vanquished--had none, so that I got into +disgrace and he did not. We made it up, and thereafter I was unmolested. +One of the greatest shocks I ever received in my life was to be told +a dozen years afterwards by the groom who brought me my horse in a +stable-yard in Sydney that he was my quondam antagonist. He had a long +story of family misfortune to account for his position, but at that time +it was necessary to deal very cautiously with mysterious strangers in +New South Wales, and on inquiry I found that the unfortunate young man +had not only been "sent out," but had undergone more than one colonial +conviction. + +As I grew older, my great desire was to be a mechanical engineer, but +the fates were against this and, while very young, I commenced the study +of medicine under a medical brother-in-law. But, though the Institute +of Mechanical Engineers would certainly not own me, I am not sure that +I have not all along been a sort of mechanical engineer in partibus +infidelium.[6] I am now occasionally horrified to think how very little +I ever knew or cared about medicine as the art of healing. The only +part of my professional course which really and deeply interested me was +physiology, which is the mechanical engineering of living machines; and, +notwithstanding that natural science has been my proper business, I am +afraid there is very little of the genuine naturalist in me. I never +collected anything, and species work was always a burden to me; what I +cared for was the architectural and engineering part of the business, +the working out of the wonderful unity of plan in the thousands and +thousands of diverse living constructions, and the modifications of +similar apparatuses to serve diverse ends. The extraordinary attraction +I felt towards the study of the intricacies of living structure nearly +proved fatal to me at the outset. I was a mere boy--I think between +thirteen and fourteen years of age--when I was taken by some older +student friends of mine to the first post-mortem examination I ever +attended. All my life I have been most unfortunately sensitive to the +disagreeables which attend anatomical pursuits, but on this occasion my +curiosity overpowered all other feelings, and I spent two or three +hours in gratifying it. I did not cut myself, and none of the ordinary +symptoms of dissection-poison supervened, but poisoned I was somehow, +and I remember sinking into a strange state of apathy. By way of a last +chance, I was sent to the care of some good, kind people, friends of +my father's, who lived in a farmhouse in the heart of Warwickshire. +I remember staggering from my bed to the window on the bright spring +morning after my arrival, and throwing open the casement. Life seemed to +come back on the wings of the breeze, and to this day the faint odor of +wood-smoke, like that which floated across the farm-yard in the early +morning, is as good to me as the "sweet south upon a bed of violets."[7] +I soon recovered, but for years I suffered from occasional paroxysms of +internal pain, and from that time my constant friend, hypochondriacal +dyspepsia, commenced his half century of co-tenancy of my fleshly +tabernacle. + +Looking back on my "Lehrjahre,"[8] I am sorry to say that I do not think +that any account of my doings as a student would tend to edification. +In fact, I should distinctly warn ingenuous youth to avoid imitating +my example. I worked extremely hard when it pleased me, and when it did +not--which was a very frequent case--I was extremely idle (unless making +caricatures of one's pastors and masters is to be called a branch +of industry), or else wasted my energies in wrong directions. I read +everything I could lay hands upon, including novels, and took up all +sorts of pursuits to drop them again quite as speedily. No doubt it was +very largely my own fault, but the only instruction from which I ever +obtained the proper effect of education was that which I received from +Mr. Wharton Jones, who was the lecturer on physiology at the Charing +Cross School of Medicine. The extent and precision of his knowledge +impressed me greatly, and the severe exactness of his method of +lecturing was quite to my taste. I do not know that I have ever felt so +much respect for anybody as a teacher before or since. I worked hard +to obtain his approbation, and he was extremely kind and helpful to the +youngster who, I am afraid, took up more of his time than he had +any right to do. It was he who suggested the publication of my first +scientific paper--a very little one--in the Medical Gazette of 1845, and +most kindly corrected the literary faults which abounded in it, short as +it was; for at that time, and for many years afterwards, I detested the +trouble of writing, and would take no pains over it. + +It was in the early spring of 1846, that, having finished my obligatory +medical studies and passed the first M. D. examination at the London +University,--though I was still too young to qualify at the College +of Surgeons,--I was talking to a fellow-student (the present eminent +physician, Sir Joseph Fayrer), and wondering what I should do to meet +the imperative necessity for earning my own bread, when my friend +suggested that I should write to Sir William Burnett, at that +time Director-General for the Medical Service of the Navy, for an +appointment. I thought this rather a strong thing to do, as Sir William +was personally unknown to me, but my cheery friend would not listen to +my scruples, so I went to my lodgings and wrote the best letter I could +devise. A few days afterwards I received the usual official circular +acknowledgment, but at the bottom there was written an instruction +to call at Somerset House on such a day. I thought that looked like +business, so at the appointed time I called and sent in my card, while +I waited in Sir William's ante-room. He was a tall, shrewd-looking old +gentleman, with a broad Scotch accent--and I think I see him now as he +entered with my card in his hand. The first thing he did was to return +it, with the frugal reminder that I should probably find it useful on +some other occasion. The second was to ask whether I was an Irishman. +I suppose the air of modesty about my appeal must have struck him. I +satisfied the Director-General that I was English to the backbone, and +he made some inquiries as to my student career, finally desiring me +to hold myself ready for examination. Having passed this, I was in Her +Majesty's Service, and entered on the books of Nelson's [9] old ship, +the Victory, for duty at Haslar Hospital, about a couple of months after +I made my application. + +My official chief at Haslar was a very remarkable person, the late +Sir John Richardson, an excellent naturalist, and far-famed as an +indomitable Arctic traveller. He was a silent, reserved man, outside the +circle of his family and intimates; and, having a full share of youthful +vanity, I was extremely disgusted to find that "Old John," as we +irreverent youngsters called him, took not the slightest notice of my +worshipful self either the first time I attended him, as it was my duty +to do, or for some weeks afterwards. I am afraid to think of the lengths +to which my tongue may have run on the subject of the churlishness +of the chief, who was, in truth, one of the kindest-hearted and most +considerate of men. But one day, as I was crossing the hospital square, +Sir John stopped me, and heaped coals of fire on my head by telling +me that he had tried to get me one of the resident appointments, much +coveted by the assistant surgeons, but that the Admiralty had put in +another man. "However," said he, "I mean to keep you here till I can get +you something you will like," and turned upon his heel without waiting +for the thanks I stammered out. That explained how it was I had not been +packed off to the West Coast of Africa like some of my juniors, and why, +eventually, I remained altogether seven months at Haslar. + +After a long interval, during which "Old John" ignored my existence +almost as completely as before, he stopped me again as we met in a +casual way, and describing the service on which the Rattlesnake was +likely to be employed, said that Captain Owen Stanley, who was to +command the ship, had asked him to recommend an assistant surgeon who +knew something of science; would I like that? Of course I jumped at +the offer. "Very well, I give you leave; go to London at once and see +Captain Stanley." I went, saw my future commander, who was very civil +to me, and promised to ask that I should be appointed to his ship, as in +due time I was. It is a singular thing that, during the few months of my +stay at Haslar, I had among my messmates two future Directors-General +of the Medical Service of the Navy (Sir Alexander Armstrong and Sir John +Watt-Reid), with the present President of the College of Physicians and +my kindest of doctors, Sir Andrew Clark. + +Life on board Her Majesty's ship in those days was a very different +affair from what it is now, and ours was exceptionally rough, as we +were often many months without receiving letters or seeing any civilised +people but ourselves. In exchange, we had the interest of being about +the last voyagers, I suppose, to whom it could be possible to meet with +people who knew nothing of fire-arms--as we did on the south coast of +New Guinea--and of making acquaintance with a variety of interesting +savage and semi-civilised people. But, apart from experience of +this kind and the opportunities offered for scientific work, to me, +personally, the cruise was extremely valuable. It was good for me to +live under sharp discipline; to be down on the realities of existence by +living on bare necessaries; to find out how extremely well worth living +life seemed to be when one woke up from a night's rest on a soft plank, +with the sky for canopy and cocoa and weevilly biscuit the sole prospect +for breakfast; and, more especially, to learn to work for the sake of +what I got for myself out of it, even if it all went to the bottom and I +along with it. My brother officers were as good fellows as sailors ought +to be and generally are, but, naturally, they neither knew nor cared +anything about my pursuits, nor understood why I should be so zealous +in pursuit of the objects which my friends, the middies,[10] christened +"Buffons," after the title conspicuous on a volume of the Suites a +Buffon,[11] which stood on my shelf in the chart room. + +During the four years of our absence, I sent home communication after +communication to the "Linnean Society,"[12] with the same result as that +obtained by Noah when he sent the raven out of his ark. Tired at last +of hearing nothing about them, I determined to do or die, and in 1849 +I drew up a more elaborate paper and forwarded it to the Royal +Society.[13] This was my dove, if I had only known it. But owing to the +movements of the ship, I heard nothing of that either until my return +to England in the latter end of the year 1850, when I found that it was +printed and published, and that a huge packet of separate copies awaited +me. When I hear some of my young friends complain of want of sympathy +and encouragement, I am inclined to think that my naval life was not the +least valuable part of my education. + +Three years after my return were occupied by a battle between my +scientific friends on the one hand and the Admiralty on the other, as +to whether the latter ought, or ought not, to act up to the spirit of a +pledge they had given to encourage officers who had done scientific +work by contributing to the expense of publishing mine. At last the +Admiralty, getting tired, I suppose, cut short the discussion by +ordering me to join a ship, which thing I declined to do, and as +Rastignac,[14] in the Pere Goriot [15] says to Paris, I said to London +"a nous deux." I desired to obtain a Professorship of either Physiology +or Comparative Anatomy, and as vacancies occurred I applied, but in +vain. My friend, Professor Tyndall,[16] and I were candidates at the +same time, he for the Chair of Physics and I for that of Natural History +in the University of Toronto, which, fortunately, as it turned out, +would not look at either of us. I say fortunately, not from any lack of +respect for Toronto, but because I soon made up my mind that London was +the place for me, and hence I have steadily declined the inducements to +leave it, which have at various times been offered. At last, in 1854, on +the translation of my warm friend Edward Forbes, to Edinburgh, Sir Henry +de la Beche, the Director-General of the Geological Survey, offered +me the post Forbes vacated of Paleontologist and Lecturer on Natural +History. I refused the former point blank, and accepted the latter only +provisionally, telling Sir Henry that I did not care for fossils, +and that I should give up Natural History as soon as I could get a +physiological post. But I held the office for thirty-one years, and a +large part of my work has been paleontological. + +At that time I disliked public speaking, and had a firm conviction that +I should break down every time I opened my mouth. I believe I had every +fault a speaker could have (except talking at random or indulging +in rhetoric), when I spoke to the first important audience I ever +addressed, on a Friday evening at the Royal Institution, in 1852. Yet, +I must confess to having been guilty, malgre moi, of as much public +speaking as most of my contemporaries, and for the last ten years it +ceased to be so much of a bugbear to me. I used to pity myself for +having to go through this training, but I am now more disposed to +compassionate the unfortunate audiences, especially my ever friendly +hearers at the Royal Institution, who were the subjects of my oratorical +experiments. + +The last thing that it would be proper for me to do would be to speak of +the work of my life, or to say at the end of the day whether I think +I have earned my wages or not. Men are said to be partial judges +of themselves. Young men may be, I doubt if old men are. Life seems +terribly foreshortened as they look back and the mountain they set +themselves to climb in youth turns out to be a mere spur of immeasurably +higher ranges when, by failing breath, they reach the top. But if I may +speak of the objects I have had more or less definitely in view since I +began the ascent of my hillock, they are briefly these: To promote +the increase of natural knowledge and to forward the application of +scientific methods of investigation to all the problems of life to the +best of my ability, in the conviction which has grown with my growth +and strengthened with my strength, that there is no alleviation for the +sufferings of mankind except veracity of thought and of action, and the +resolute facing of the world as it is when the garment of make-believe +by which pious hands have hidden its uglier features is stripped off. + +It is with this intent that I have subordinated any reasonable, or +unreasonable, ambition for scientific fame which I may have permitted +myself to entertain to other ends; to the popularization of science; to +the development and organisation of scientific education; to the +endless series of battles and skirmishes over evolution; and to untiring +opposition to that ecclesiastical spirit,[17] that clericalism, which in +England, as everywhere else, and to whatever denomination it may belong, +is the deadly enemy of science. + +In striving for the attainment of these objects, I have been but one +among many, and I shall be well content to be remembered, or even not +remembered, as such. Circumstances, among which I am proud to reckon the +devoted kindness of many friends, have led to my occupation of various +prominent positions, among which the Presidency of the Royal Society is +the highest. It would be mock modesty on my part, with these and other +scientific honours which have been bestowed upon me, to pretend that I +have not succeeded in the career which I have followed, rather because +I was driven into it than of my own free will; but I am afraid I should +not count even these things as marks of success if I could not hope that +I had somewhat helped that movement of opinion which has been called the +New Reformation.[18] + + + + +ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE [19] + + +This time two hundred years ago--in the beginning of January, +1666--those of our forefathers who inhabited this great and ancient +city, took breath between the shocks of two fearful calamities: one not +quite past, although its fury had abated; the other to come. + +Within a few yards of the very spot [20] on which we are assembled, so +the tradition runs, that painful and deadly malady, the plague, appeared +in the latter months of 1664; and, though no new visitor, smote the +people of England, and especially of her capital, with a violence +unknown before, in the course of the following year. The hand of a +master has pictured what happened in those dismal months; and in that +truest of fictions, The History of the Plague Year, Defoe [21] shows +death, with every accompaniment of pain and terror, stalking through the +narrow streets of old London, and changing their busy hum into a silence +broken only by the wailing of the mourners of fifty thousand dead; by +the woeful denunciations and mad prayers of fanatics; and by the madder +yells of despairing profligates. + +But, about this time in 1666, the death-rate had sunk to nearly its +ordinary amount; a case of plague occurred only here and there, and +the richer citizens who had flown from the pest had returned to their +dwellings. The remnant of the people began to toil at the accustomed +round of duty, or of pleasure; and the stream of city life bid fair to +flow back along its old bed, with renewed and uninterrupted vigour. + +The newly kindled hope was deceitful. The great plague, indeed, returned +no more; but what it had done for the Londoners, the great fire, which +broke out in the autumn of 1666, did for London; and, in September of +that year, a heap of ashes and the indestructible energy of the people +were all that remained of the glory of five-sixths of the city within +the walls. + + +Our forefathers had their own ways of accounting for each of these +calamities. They submitted to the plague in humility and in penitence, +for they believed it to be the judgment of God. But, towards the fire +they were furiously indignant, interpreting it as the effect of the +malice of man,--as the work of the Republicans, or of the Papists, +according as their prepossessions ran in favour of loyalty or of +Puritanism. + +It would, I fancy, have fared but ill with one who, standing where I +now stand, in what was then a thickly peopled and fashionable part of +London, should have broached to our ancestors the doctrine which I now +propound to you--that all their hypotheses were alike wrong; that the +plague was no more, in their sense, Divine judgment, than the fire was +the work of any political, or of any religious sect; but that they were +themselves the authors of both plague and fire, and that they must look +to themselves to prevent the recurrence of calamities, to all appearance +so peculiarly beyond the reach of human control--so evidently the result +of the wrath of God, or of the craft and subtlety of an enemy. + +And one may picture to one's self how harmoniously the holy cursing of +the Puritan of that day would have chimed in with the unholy cursing +and the crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys,[22] and with the +revilings of the political fanatics, if my imaginary plain dealer +had gone on to say that, if the return of such misfortunes were ever +rendered impossible, it would not be in virtue of the victory of the +faith of Laud,[23] or of that of Milton; and, as little, by the triumph +of republicanism, as by that of monarchy. But that the one thing needful +for compassing this end was, that the people of England should second +the efforts of an insignificant corporation, the establishment of which, +a few years before the epoch of the great plague and the great fire, had +been as little noticed, as they were conspicuous. + + +Some twenty years before the outbreak of the plague a few calm and +thoughtful students banded themselves together for the purpose, as they +phrased it, of "improving natural knowledge." The ends they proposed +to attain cannot be stated more clearly than in the words of one of the +founders of the organisation:-- + +"Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to +discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, and such as related +thereunto:--as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, +Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments; +with the state of these studies and their cultivation at home and +abroad. We then discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves +in the veins, the venae lacteae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican +hypothesis, the nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of +Jupiter, the oval shape (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots +on the sun and its turning on its own axis, the inequalities and +selenography [24] of the moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, +the improvement of telescopes and grinding of glasses for that purpose, +the weight of air, the possibility or impossibility of vacuities +and nature's abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment [25] in +quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of acceleration +therein, with divers other things of like nature, some of which were +then but new discoveries, and others not so generally known and embraced +as now they are; with other things appertaining to what hath been called +the New Philosophy, which from the times of Galileo at Florence, and Sir +Francis Bacon [26] (Lord Verulam) in England, hath been much cultivated +in Italy, France, Germany, and other parts abroad, as well as with us in +England." + +The learned Dr. Wallis,[27] writing in 1696, narrates in these words, +what happened half a century before, or about 1645. The associates met +at Oxford, in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to become a +bishop; and subsequently coming together in London, they attracted +the notice of the king. And it is a strange evidence of the taste for +knowledge which the most obviously worthless of the Stuarts shared with +his father and grandfather, that Charles the Second was not content with +saying witty things about his philosophers, but did wise things with +regard to them. For he not only bestowed upon them such attention as he +could spare from his poodles and his mistresses, but, being in his usual +state of impecuniosity, begged for them of the Duke of Ormond; and, that +step being without effect, gave them Chelsea College, a charter, and +a mace: crowning his favours in the best way they could be crowned, by +burdening them no further with royal patronage or state interference. + +Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, studious of the "New +Philosophy," [28] who met in one another's lodgings in Oxford or in +London, in the middle of the seventeenth century, grew in numerical and +in real strength, until, in its latter part, the "Royal Society for the +Improvement of Natural Knowledge" had already become famous, and had +acquired a claim upon the veneration of Englishmen, which it has ever +since retained, as the principal focus of scientific activity in our +islands, and the chief champion of the cause it was formed to support. + +It was by the aid of the Royal Society [29] that Newton [30] published +his Principia. If all the books in the world, except the Philosophical +Transactions, [31] were destroyed, it is safe to say that the +foundations of physical science would remain unshaken, and that the vast +intellectual progress of the last two centuries would be largely, though +incompletely, recorded. Nor have any signs of halting or of decrepitude +manifested themselves in our own times. As in Dr. Wallis's days, so +in these, "our business is, precluding theology and state affairs, +to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries." But our +"Mathematick" is one which Newton would have to go to school to +learn; our "Staticks, Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural +Experiments" constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, a +glimpse at which would compensate Galileo [32] for the doings of a score +of inquisitorial cardinals; our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced +such infinite varieties of beings, have laid open such new worlds in +time and space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex +problems, that the eyes of Vesalius [33] and of Harvey [34] might be +dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of their grain of +mustard seed. + +The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, forced upon one's +notice, nowadays, that all this marvellous intellectual growth has a no +less wonderful expression in practical life; and that, in this respect, +if in no other, the movement symbolised by the progress of the Royal +Society stands without a parallel in the history of mankind. + +A series of volumes as bulky as the "Transactions of the Royal Society" +might possibly be filled with the subtle speculations [35] of the +Schoolmen;[36] not improbably, the obtaining a mastery over the products +of mediaeval thought might necessitate an even greater expenditure of +time and of energy than the acquirement of the "New Philosophy"; but +though such work engrossed the best intellects of Europe for a longer +time than has elapsed since the great fire, its effects were "writ in +water,"[37] so far as our social state is concerned. + +On the other hand, if the noble first President of the Royal Society +could revisit the upper air and once more gladden his eyes with a sight +of the familiar mace, he would find himself in the midst of a material +civilisation more different from that of his day, than that of the +seventeenth was from that of the first century. And if Lord Brouncker's +[38] native sagacity had not deserted his ghost, he would need no long +reflection to discover that all these great ships, these railways, these +telegraphs, these factories, these printing-presses, without which the +whole fabric of modern English society would collapse into a mass of +stagnant and starving pauperism,--that all these pillars of our State +are but the ripples and the bubbles upon the surface of that great +spiritual stream, the springs of which only, he and his fellows were +privileged to see; and seeing, to recognise as that which it behoved +them above all things to keep pure and undefiled. + +It may not be too great a flight of imagination to conceive our noble +revenant [39] not forgetful of the great troubles of his own day, and +anxious to know how often London had been burned down since his time +and how often the plague had carried off its thousands. He would have to +learn that, although London contains tenfold the inflammable matter that +it did in 1666; though, not content with filling our rooms with woodwork +and light draperies, we must needs lead inflammable and explosive gases +into every corner of our streets and houses, we never allow even a +street to burn down. And if he asked how this had come about, we should +have to explain that the improvement of natural knowledge has furnished +us with dozens of machines for throwing water upon fires, any one of +which would have furnished the ingenious Mr. Hooke, the first "curator +and experimenter" of the Royal Society, with ample materials for +discourse before half a dozen meetings of that body; and that, to say +truth, except for the progress of natural knowledge, we should not +have been able to make even the tools by which these machines are +constructed. And, further, it would be necessary to add, that although +severe fires sometimes occur and inflict great damage, the loss is very +generally compensated by societies, the operations of which have been +rendered possible only by the progress of natural knowledge in the +direction of mathematics, and the accumulation of wealth in virtue of +other natural knowledge. + +But the plague? My Lord Brouncker's observation would not, I fear, lead +him to think that Englishmen of the nineteenth century are purer in +life, or more fervent in religious faith, than the generation which +could produce a Boyle,[40] an Evelyn,[41] and a Milton. He might find +the mud of society at the bottom, instead of at the top, but I fear that +the sum total would be as deserving of swift judgment as at the time of +the Restoration.[42] And it would be our duty to explain once more, and +this time not without shame, that we have no reason to believe that it +is the improvement of our faith, nor that of our morals, which keeps +the plague from our city; but, again, that it is the improvement of our +natural knowledge. + +We have learned that pestilences will only take up their abode among +those who have prepared unswept and ungarnished residences for them. +Their cities must have narrow, unwatered streets, foul with accumulated +garbage. Their houses must be ill-drained, ill-lighted, ill-ventilated. +Their subjects must be ill-washed, ill-fed, ill-clothed. The London +of 1665 was such a city. The cities of the East, where plague has an +enduring dwelling, are such cities. We, in later times, have learned +somewhat of Nature, and partly obey her. Because of this partial +improvement of our natural knowledge and of that fractional obedience, +we have no plague; because that knowledge is still very imperfect and +that obedience yet incomplete, typhoid is our companion and cholera our +visitor. But it is not presumptuous to express the belief that, when +our knowledge is more complete and our obedience the expression of our +knowledge, London will count her centuries of freedom from typhoid +and cholera, as she now gratefully reckons her two hundred years of +ignorance of that plague which swooped upon her thrice in the first half +of the seventeenth century. + +Surely, there is nothing in these explanations which is not fully +borne out by the facts? Surely, the principles involved in them are now +admitted among the fixed beliefs of all thinking men? Surely, it is true +that our countrymen are less subject to fire, famine, pestilence, +and all the evils which result from a want of command over and due +anticipation of the course of Nature, than were the countrymen of +Milton; and health, wealth, and well-being are more abundant with us +than with them? But no less certainly is the difference due to the +improvement of our knowledge of Nature, and the extent to which that +improved knowledge has been incorporated with the household words of +men, and has supplied the springs of their daily actions. + +Granting for a moment, then, the truth of that which the depreciators of +natural knowledge are so fond of urging, that its improvement can only +add to the resources of our material civilisation; admitting it to be +possible that the founders of the Royal Society themselves looked +for not other reward than this, I cannot confess that I was guilty +of exaggeration when I hinted, that to him who had the gift of +distinguishing between prominent events and important events, the origin +of a combined effort on the part of mankind to improve natural knowledge +might have loomed larger than the Plague and have outshone the glare +of the Fire; as a something fraught with a wealth of beneficence to +mankind, in comparison with which the damage done by those ghastly evils +would shrink into insignificance. + +It is very certain that for every victim slain by the plague, hundreds +of mankind exist and find a fair share of happiness in the world by the +aid of the spinning jenny. And the great fire, at its worst, could +not have burned the supply of coal, the daily working of which, in the +bowels of the earth, made possible by the steam pump, gives rise to an +amount of wealth to which the millions lost in old London are but as an +old song. + + +But spinning jenny and steam pump are, after all, but toys, possessing +an accidental value; and natural knowledge creates multitudes of more +subtle contrivances, the praises of which do not happen to be sung +because they are not directly convertible into instruments for creating +wealth. When I contemplate natural knowledge squandering such gifts +among men, the only appropriate comparison I can find for her is to +liken her to such a peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever +upward, heavily burdened, and with mind bent only on her home; but +yet without effort and without thought, knitting for her children. +Now stockings are good and comfortable things, and the children +will undoubtedly be much the better for them; but surely it would be +short-sighted, to say the least of it, to depreciate this toiling mother +as a mere stocking-machine--a mere provider of physical comforts? + +However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a few of them, +who take this view of natural knowledge, and can see nothing in the +bountiful mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding machine. +According to them, the improvement of natural knowledge always has been, +and always must be, synonymous with no more than the improvement of the +material resources and the increase of the gratifications of men. + +Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of mankind, bringing +them up with kindness, and, if need be, with sternness, in the way they +should go, and instructing them in all things needful for their welfare; +but a sort of fairy god-mother, ready to furnish her pets with shoes of +swiftness, swords of sharpness, and omnipotent Aladdin's lamps,[43] so +that they may have telegraphs to Saturn, and see the other side of the +moon, and thank God they are better than their benighted ancestors. + +If this talk were true, I, for one, should not greatly care to toil +in the service of natural knowledge. I think I would just as soon be +quietly chipping my own flint axe, after the manner of my forefathers +a few thousand years back, as be troubled with the endless malady of +thought which now infests us all, for such reward. But I venture to +say that such views are contrary alike to reason and to fact. Those who +discourse in such fashion seem to me to be so intent upon trying to see +what is above Nature, or what is behind her, that they are blind to what +stares them in the face in her. + +I should not venture thus to speak strongly if my justification were not +to be found in the simplest and most obvious facts,--if it needed more +than an appeal to the most notorious truths to justify my assertion, +that the improvement of natural knowledge, whatever direction it has +taken, and however low the aims of those who may have commenced it--has +not only conferred practical benefits on men, but, in so doing, has +effected a revolution in their conceptions of the universe and of +themselves, and has profoundly altered their modes of thinking and +their views of right and wrong. I say that natural knowledge, seeking +to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still +spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to +ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of +conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality. + + +Let us take these points separately; and first, what great ideas has +natural knowledge introduced into men's minds? + +I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural knowledge were +laid when the reason of man first came face to face with the facts of +Nature; when the savage first learned that the fingers of one hand are +fewer than those of both; that it is shorter to cross a stream than to +head it; that a stone stops where it is unless it be moved, and that it +drops from the hand which lets it go; that light and heat come and go +with the sun; that sticks burn away in a fire; that plants and animals +grow and die; that if he struck his fellow savage a blow he would make +him angry, and perhaps get a blow in return, while if he offered him a +fruit he would please him, and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. When +men had acquired this much knowledge, the outlines, rude though they +were, of mathematics, of physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, +economical, and political science, were sketched. Nor did the germ of +religion fail when science began to bud. Listen to words which, though +new, are yet three thousand years old:-- + +. . . When in heaven the stars about the moon Look beautiful, when all +the winds are laid, And every height comes out, and jutting peak And +valley, and the immeasurable heavens Break open to their highest, and +all the stars Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart.[44] + + +If the half savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, it is +irrational to doubt that he went further, to find as we do, that upon +that brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow,--the little light of +awakened human intelligence shines so mere a spark amidst the abyss +of the unknown and unknowable; seems so insufficient to do more than +illuminate the imperfections that cannot be remedied, the aspirations +that cannot be realised, of man's own nature. But in this sadness, this +consciousness of the limitation of man, this sense of an open secret +which he cannot penetrate, lies the essence of all religion; and the +attempt to embody it in the forms furnished by the intellect is the +origin of the higher theologies. + +Thus it seems impossible to imagine but that the foundations of all +knowledge--secular or sacred--were laid when intelligence dawned, though +the superstructure remained for long ages so slight and feeble as to be +compatible with the existence of almost any general view respecting the +mode of governance of the universe. No doubt, from the first, there were +certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind, presented a constancy of +occurrence, and suggested that a fixed order ruled, at any rate, among +them. I doubt if the grossest of Fetish worshippers ever imagined that +a stone must have a god within it to make it fall, or that a fruit had +a god within it to make it taste sweet. With regard to such matters +as these, it is hardly questionable that mankind from the first took +strictly positive and scientific views. + +But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which present +themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always taken himself as the +standard of comparison, as the centre and measure of the world; nor +could be well avoid doing so. And finding that his apparently uncaused +will has a powerful effect in giving rise to many occurrences, he +naturally enough ascribed other and greater events to other and greater +volitions and came to look upon the world and all that therein is, as +the product of the volitions of persons like himself, but stronger, and +capable of being appeased or angered, as he himself might be soothed +or irritated. Through such conceptions of the plan and working of +the universe all mankind have passed, or are passing. And we may +now consider what has been the effect of the improvement of natural +knowledge on the views of men who have reached this stage, and who +have begun to cultivate natural knowledge with no desire but that of +"increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate."[45] + +For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material point of view, +more innocent, from a theological one, to an ancient people, than that +they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as warnings for +their husbandmen; or the position of the stars, as guides to their +rude navigators?[46] But what has grown out of this search for natural +knowledge of so merely useful a character? You all know the reply. +Astronomy,--which of all sciences has filled men's minds with general +ideas of a character most foreign to their daily experience, and has, +more than any other, rendered it impossible for them to accept the +beliefs of their fathers. Astronomy,--which tells them that this so vast +and seemingly solid earth is but an atom among atoms, whirling, no man +knows whither, through illimitable space; which demonstrates that what +we call the peaceful heaven above us, is but that space, filled by an +infinitely subtle matter whose particles are seething and surging, like +the waves of an angry sea; which opens up to us infinite regions where +nothing is known, or ever seems to have been known, but matter and +force, operating according to rigid rules; which leads us to contemplate +phaenomena the very nature of which demonstrates that they must have +had a beginning, and that they must have an end, but the very nature of +which also proves that the beginning was, to our conceptions of time, +infinitely remote, and that the end is as immeasurably distant. + +But it is not alone those who pursue astronomy who ask for bread +and receive ideas. What more harmless than the attempt to lift and +distribute water by pumping it; what more absolutely and grossly +utilitarian? Yet out of pumps grew the discussions about Nature's +abhorrence of a vacuum; and then it was discovered that Nature does not +abhor a vacuum, but that air has weight; and that notion paved the way +for the doctrine that all matter has weight, and that the force which +produces weight is co-extensive with the universe,--in short, to the +theory of universal gravitation and endless force. While learning how +to handle gases led to the discovery of oxygen, and to modern chemistry, +and to the notion of the indestructibility of matter. + +Again, what simpler, or more absolutely practical, than the attempt to +keep the axle of a wheel from heating when the wheel turns round very +fast? How useful for carters and gig drivers to know something about +this; and how good were it, if any ingenious person would find out the +cause of such phaenomena, and thence educe a general remedy for +them. Such an ingenious person was Count Rumford;[47] and he and +his successors have landed us in the theory of the persistence, or +indestructibility, of force. And in the infinitely minute, as in the +infinitely great, the seekers after natural knowledge of the kinds +called physical and chemical, have everywhere found a definite order and +succession of events which seem never to be infringed. + +And how has it fared with "Physick" and Anatomy? Have the anatomist, +the physiologist, or the physician, whose business it has been to devote +themselves assiduously to that eminently practical and direct end, +the alleviation of the sufferings of mankind,--have they been able to +confine their vision more absolutely to the strictly useful? I fear they +are the worst offenders of all. For if the astronomer has set before +us the infinite magnitude of space, and the practical eternity of the +duration of the universe; if the physical and chemical philosophers have +demonstrated the infinite minuteness of its constituent parts, and +the practical eternity of matter and of force; and if both have alike +proclaimed the universality of a definite and predicable order and +succession of events, the workers in biology have not only accepted all +these, but have added more startling theses of their own. For, as the +astronomers discover in the earth no centre of the universe, but an +eccentric [48] speck, so the naturalists find man to be no centre of the +living world, but one amidst endless modifications of life; and as the +astronomers observe the mark of practically endless time set upon +the arrangements of the solar system so the student of life finds the +records of ancient forms of existence peopling the world for ages, +which, in relation to human experience, are infinite. + +Furthermore, the physiologist finds life to be as dependent for its +manifestation of particular molecular arrangements as any physical or +chemical phenomenon; and wherever he extends his researches, fixed order +and unchanging causation reveal themselves, as plainly as in the rest of +Nature. + +Nor can I find that any other fate has awaited the germ of Religion. +Arising, like all other kinds of knowledge, out of the action and +interaction of man's mind, with that which is not man's mind, it has +taken the intellectual coverings of Fetishism or Polytheism; of Theism +or Atheism; of Superstition or Rationalism. With these, and their +relative merits and demerits, I have nothing to do; but this it is +needful for my purpose to say, that if the religion of the present +differs from that of the past, it is because the theology of the present +has become more scientific than that of the past; because it has not +only renounced idols of wood and idols of stone, but begins to see +the necessity of breaking in pieces the idols built up of books and +traditions and fine-spun ecclesiastical cobwebs: and of cherishing the +noblest and most human of man's emotions, by worship "for the most part +of the silent sort" at the Altar of the Unknown. + +Such are a few of the new conceptions implanted in our minds by the +improvement of natural knowledge. Men have acquired the ideas of +the practically infinite extent of the universe and of its practical +eternity; they are familiar with the conception that our earth is but an +infinitesimal fragment of that part of the universe which can be seen; +and that, nevertheless, its duration is, as compared with our standards +of time, infinite. They have further acquired the idea that man is but +one of innumerable forms of life now existing on the globe, and that +the present existences are but the last of an immeasurable series of +predecessors. Moreover, every step they have made in natural knowledge +has tended to extend and rivet in their minds the conception of a +definite order of the universe--which is embodied in what are called, +by an unhappy metaphor, the laws of Nature--and to narrow the range and +loosen the force of men's belief in spontaneity, or in changes other +than such as arise out of that definite order itself. + +Whether these ideas are well or ill founded is not the question. No one +can deny that they exist, and have been the inevitable outgrowth of the +improvement of natural knowledge. And if so, it cannot be doubted that +they are changing the form of men's most cherished and most important +convictions. + + +And as regards the second point--the extent to which the improvement +of natural knowledge has remodelled and altered what may be termed the +intellectual ethics of men,--what are among the moral convictions most +fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people? + +They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of +belief; that merit attaches to a readiness to believe; that the doubting +disposition is a bad one, and scepticism a sin; that when good authority +has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted it, reason +has no further duty. There are many excellent persons who yet hold by +these principles, and it is not my present business, or intention, to +discuss their views. All I wish to bring clearly before your minds is +the unquestionable fact, that the improvement of natural knowledge +is effected by methods which directly give the lie to all these +convictions, and assume the exact reverse of each to be true. + +The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge +authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind +faith the one unpardonable sin. And it cannot be otherwise, for every +great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection +of authority, the cherishing of the keenest scepticism, the annihilation +of the spirit of blind faith; and the most ardent votary of science +holds his firmest convictions, not because the men he most venerates +hold them; not because their verity is testified by portents and +wonders; but because his experience teaches him that whenever he chooses +to bring these convictions into contact with their primary source, +Nature--whenever he thinks fit to test them by appealing to experiment +and to observation--Nature will confirm them. The man of science has +learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification. + +Thus, without for a moment pretending to despise the practical results +of the improvement of natural knowledge, and its beneficial influence +on material civilisation, it must, I think, be admitted that the great +ideas, some of which I have indicated, and the ethical spirit which +I have endeavoured to sketch, in the few moments which remained at my +disposal, constitute the real and permanent significance of natural +knowledge. + +If these ideas be destined, as I believe they are, to be more and more +firmly established as the world grows older; if that spirit be fated, as +I believe it is, to extend itself into all departments of human thought, +and to become co-extensive with the range of knowledge; if, as our race +approaches its maturity, it discovers, as I believe it will, that there +is but one kind of knowledge and but one method of acquiring it; then +we, who are still children, may justly feel it our highest duty to +recognise the advisableness of improving natural knowledge, and so to +aid ourselves and our successors in our course towards the noble goal +which lies before mankind. + + + + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION [49] + + +The business which the South London Working Men's College has undertaken +is a great work; indeed, I might say, that Education, with which that +college proposes to grapple, is the greatest work of all those which lie +ready to a man's hand just at present. + +And, at length, this fact is becoming generally recognised. You +cannot go anywhere without hearing a buzz of more or less confused and +contradictory talk on this subject--nor can you fail to notice that, +in one point at any rate, there is a very decided advance upon like +discussions in former days. Nobody outside the agricultural interest now +dares to say that education is a bad thing. If any representative of the +once large and powerful party, which, in former days, proclaimed this +opinion, still exists in the semi-fossil state, he keeps his thoughts +to himself. In fact, there is a chorus of voices, almost distressing in +their harmony, raised in favour of the doctrine that education is +the great panacea for human troubles, and that, if the country is not +shortly to go to the dogs, everybody must be educated. + +The politicians tell us, "You must educate the masses because they are +going to be masters." The clergy join in the cry for education, for they +affirm that the people are drifting away from church and chapel into +the broadest infidelity. The manufacturers and the capitalists swell +the chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance makes bad workmen; that +England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods, or steam engines, +cheaper than other people; and then, Ichabod! Ichabod![50] the glory +will be departed from us. And a few voices are lifted up in favour of +the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they are men and +women with unlimited capacities of being, doing, and suffering, and that +it is as true now, as it ever was, that the people perish for lack of +knowledge. + +These members of the minority, with whom I confess I have a good deal of +sympathy, are doubtful whether any of the other reasons urged in favour +of the education of the people are of much value--whether, indeed, some +of them are based upon either wise or noble grounds of action. They +question if it be wise to tell people that you will do for them, out +of fear of their power, what you have left undone, so long as your only +motive was compassion for their weakness and their sorrows. And, if +ignorance of everything which is needful a ruler should know is likely +to do so much harm in the governing classes of the future, why is it, +they ask reasonably enough, that such ignorance in the governing classes +of the past has not been viewed with equal horror? + +Compare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it may +be doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in point of +ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that the ignorance is +of a different sort--that the class feeling is in favour of a different +class and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of wrong-headedness +in each case--but it is questionable if the one is either a bit better, +or a bit worse, than the other. The old protectionist theory is the +doctrine of trades unions as applied by the squires, and the modern +trades unionism is the doctrine of the squires applied by the artisans. +Why should we be worse off under one regime than under the other? + +Again, this sceptical minority asks the clergy to think whether it +is really want of education which keeps the masses away from their +ministrations--whether the most completely educated men are not as open +to reproach on this score as the workmen; and whether, perchance, this +may not indicate that it is not education which lies at the bottom of +the matter? + +Once more, these people, whom there is no pleasing, venture to doubt +whether the glory which rests upon being able to undersell all the rest +of the world, is a very safe kind of glory--whether we may not purchase +it too dear; especially if we allow education, which ought to be +directed to the making of men, to be diverted into a process of +manufacturing human tools, wonderfully adroit in the exercise of some +technical industry, but good for nothing else. + +And, finally, these people inquire whether it is the masses alone who +need a reformed and improved education. They ask whether the richest of +our public schools might not well be made to supply knowledge, as well +as gentlemanly habits, a strong class feeling, and eminent proficiency +in cricket. They seem to think that the noble foundations of our old +universities are hardly fulfilling their functions in their present +posture of half-clerical seminaries, half racecourses, where men are +trained to win a senior wranglership,[51] or a double-first,[52] as +horses are trained to win a cup, with as little reference to the needs +of after-life in the case of a man as in that of the racer. And, while +as zealous for education as the rest, they affirm that, if the education +of the richer classes were such as to fit them to be the leaders and +the governors of the poorer; and, if the education of the poorer classes +were such as to enable them to appreciate really wise guidance and good +governance, the politicians need not fear mob-law, nor the clergy lament +their want of flocks, nor the capitalists prognosticate the annihilation +of the prosperity of the country. + +Such is the diversity of opinion upon the why and the wherefore of +education. And my hearers will be prepared to expect that the practical +recommendations which are put forward are not less discordant. There is +a loud cry for compulsory education. We English, in spite of constant +experience to the contrary, preserve a touching faith in the efficacy of +acts of Parliament; and I believe we should have compulsory education +in the courses of next session, if there were the least probability that +half a dozen leading statesmen of different parties would agree what +that education should be. + +Some hold that education without theology is worse than none. Others +maintain, quite as strongly, that education with theology is in the same +predicament. But this is certain, that those who hold the first opinion +can by no means agree what theology should be taught; and that those who +maintain the second are in a small minority. + +At any rate "make people learn to read, write, and cipher," say a great +many; and the advice is undoubtedly sensible as far as it goes. But, +as has happened to me in former days, those who, in despair of getting +anything better, advocate this measure, are met with the objection that +it is very like making a child practise the use of a knife, fork, and +spoon, without giving it particle of meat. I really don't know what +reply is to be made to such an objection. + +But it would be unprofitable to spend more time in disentangling, +or rather in showing up the knots in, the ravelled skeins of our +neighbours. Much more to the purpose is it to ask if we possess any clue +of our own which may guide us among these entanglements. And by way of +a beginning, let us ask ourselves--What is education? Above all things, +what is our ideal of a thoroughly liberal education?--of that education +which, if we could begin life again, we would give ourselves--of that +education which, if we could mould the fates to our own will, we would +give our children? Well, I know not what may be your conceptions upon +this matter, but I will tell you mine, and I hope I shall find that our +views are not very discrepant. + + +Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one +of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a game +of chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary +duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; to have +a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of giving and +getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look with a +disapprobation amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed his son, +or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a +pawn from a knight? + +Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the fortune, +and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who +are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules +of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is +a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us +being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chessboard +is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules +of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other +side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, +and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a +mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who +plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing +generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who +plays ill is checkmated--without haste, but without remorse. + +My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which +Retzsch [53] has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. +Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel +who is playing for love, as we say, and would rather lose than win--and +I should accept it as an image of human life. + +Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty +game. In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in +the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things +and their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the +affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in +harmony with those laws. For me, education means neither more nor less +than this. Anything which professes to call itself education must be +tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the test, I will +not call it education, whatever may be the force of authority, or of +numbers, upon the other side. + +It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is no such thing +as an uneducated man. Take an extreme case. Suppose that an adult man, +in the full vigour of his faculties, could be suddenly placed in the +world, as Adam is said to have been, and then left to do as he best +might. How long would he be left uneducated? Not five minutes. Nature +would begin to teach him, through the eye, the ear, the touch, the +properties of objects. Pain and pleasure would be at his elbow telling +him to do this and avoid that; and by slow degrees the man would receive +an education which, if narrow, would be thorough, real, and adequate +to his circumstances, though there would be no extras and very few +accomplishments. + +And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam or, better still, an +Eve, a new and greater world, that of social and moral phenomena, would +be revealed. Joys and woes, compared with which all others might seem +but faint shadows, would spring from the new relations. Happiness and +sorrow would take the place of the coarser monitors, pleasure and pain; +but conduct would still be shaped by the observation of the natural +consequences of actions; or, in other words, by the laws of the nature +of man. + +To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. And +then, long before we were susceptible of any other modes of instruction, +Nature took us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its +educational influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with +Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross +disobedience. Nor should I speak of this process of education as past +for any one, be he as old as he may. For every man the world is as fresh +as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who +has the eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her patient +education of us in that great university, the universe, of which we are +all members--Nature having no Test-Acts.[54] + +Those who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws which +govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and successful +men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the "Poll,"[55] who +pick up just enough to get through without much discredit. Those who +won't learn at all are plucked;[56] and then you can't come up again. +Nature's pluck means extermination. + +Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as Nature +is concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and passed long +ago. But, like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and +wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful +disobedience--incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. +Nature's discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; +but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your +ears are boxed. + +The object of what we commonly call education--that education in which +man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial education--is +to make good these defects in Nature's methods; to prepare the child to +receive Nature's education, neither incapably nor ignorantly, nor with +wilful disobedience; and to understand the preliminary symptoms of +her pleasure, without waiting for the box on the ear. In short, all +artificial education ought to be an anticipation of natural education. +And a liberal education is an artificial education which has not only +prepared a man to escape the great evils of disobedience to natural +laws, but has trained him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards, +which Nature scatters with as free a hand as her penalties. + +That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained +in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with +ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; +whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of +equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, +to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as +forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge +of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her +operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, +but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the +servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, +whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others +as himself. + +Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for +he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will +make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely; +she as his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious +self, her minister and interpreter. + + + + +ON A PIECE OF CHALK [57] + + +If a well were sunk at our feet in the midst of the city of Norwich, the +diggers would very soon find themselves at work in that white substance +almost too soft to be called rock, with which we are all familiar as +"chalk." + +Not only here, but over the whole county of Norfolk, the well-sinker +might carry his shaft down many hundred feet without coming to the end +of the chalk; and, on the sea-coast, where the waves have pared away +the face of the land which breasts them, the scarped faces of the high +cliffs are often wholly formed of the same material. Northward, the +chalk may be followed as far as Yorkshire; on the south coast it appears +abruptly in the picturesque western bays of Dorset, and breaks into +the Needles of the Isle of Wight;[58] while on the shores of Kent it +supplies that long line of white cliffs to which England owes her name +of Albion. + +Were the thin soil which covers it all washed away, a curved band +of white chalk, here broader, and there narrower, might be followed +diagonally across England from Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough Head +[59] in Yorkshire--a distance of over two hundred and eighty miles as +the crow flies. + +From this band to the North Sea, on the east, and the Channel, on the +South, the chalk is largely hidden by other deposits; but, except in the +Weald [60] of Kent and Sussex, it enters into the very foundation of all +the south-eastern counties. + +Attaining, as it does in some places, a thickness of more than a +thousand feet, the English chalk must be admitted to be a mass of +considerable magnitude. Nevertheless, it covers but an insignificant +portion of the whole area occupied by the chalk formation of the globe, +which has precisely the same general characters as ours, and is found +in detached patches, some less, and others more extensive, than the +English. + +Chalk occurs in north-west Ireland; it stretches over a large part of +France,--the chalk which underlies Paris being, in fact, a continuation +of that of the London basin; it runs through Denmark and Central Europe, +and extends southward to North Africa; while eastward, it appears in the +Crimea and in Syria, and may be traced as far as the shores of the Sea +of Aral, in Central Asia. + +If all the points at which true chalk occurs were circumscribed, they +would lie within an irregular oval about three thousand miles in long +diameter--the area of which would be as great as that of Europe, and +would many times exceed that of the largest existing inland sea--the +Mediterranean. + +Thus the chalk is no unimportant element in the masonry of the earth's +crust, and it impresses a peculiar stamp, varying with the conditions to +which it is exposed, on the scenery of the districts in which it occurs. +The undulating downs and rounded coombs, covered with sweet-grassed +turf, of our inland chalk country, have a peacefully domestic and +mutton-suggesting prettiness, but can hardly be called either grand +or beautiful. But on our southern coasts, the wall-sided cliffs, many +hundred feet high, with vast needles and pinnacles standing out in +the sea, sharp and solitary enough to serve as perches for the wary +cormorant confer a wonderful beauty and grandeur upon the chalk +headlands. And, in the East, chalk has its share in the formation of +some of the most venerable of mountain ranges, such as the Lebanon. + + +What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and +whence did it come? + +You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not unnaturally +suppose that the attempt to solve such problems as these can lead to +no result, save that of entangling the inquirer in vague speculations, +incapable of refutation and of verification. + +If such were really the case, I should have selected some other subject +than a "piece of chalk" for my discourse. But, in truth, after much +deliberation, I have been unable to think of any topic which would so +well enable me to lead you to see how solid is the foundation upon which +some of the most startling conclusions of physical science rest. + +A great chapter of the history of the world is written in the chalk. Few +passages in the history of man can be supported by such an overwhelming +mass of direct and indirect evidence as that which testifies to the +truth of the fragment of the history of the globe, which I hope to +enable you to read, with your own eyes, tonight. + +Let me add, that few chapters of human history have a more profound +significance for ourselves. I weigh my words well when I assert, that +the man who should know the true history of the bit of chalk which every +carpenter carries about in his breeches-pocket, though ignorant of all +other history, is likely, if he will think his knowledge out to its +ultimate results, to have a truer, and therefore a better, conception +of this wonderful universe, and of man's relation to it, than the most +learned student who is deep-read in the records of humanity and ignorant +of those of Nature. + +The language of the chalk is not hard to learn, not nearly so hard as +Latin, if you only want to get at the broad features of the story it has +to tell; and I propose that we now set to work to spell that story out +together. + +We all know that if we "burn" chalk the result is quicklime. Chalk, in +fact, is a compound of carbonic acid gas, and lime, and when you make it +very hot the carbonic acid flies away and the lime is left. + +By this method of procedure we see the lime, but we do not see the +carbonic acid. If, on the other hand, you were to powder a little chalk +and drop it into a good deal of strong vinegar, there would be a great +bubbling and fizzing, and, finally, a clear liquid, in which no sign of +chalk would appear. Here you see the carbonic acid in the bubbles; the +lime, dissolved in the vinegar, vanishes from sight. There are a +great many other ways of showing that chalk is essentially nothing but +carbonic acid and quicklime. Chemists enunciate the result of all the +experiments which prove this, by stating that chalk is almost wholly +composed of "carbonate of lime." + +It is desirable for us to start from the knowledge of this fact, though +it may not seem to help us very far towards what we seek. For carbonate +of lime is a widely spread substance, and is met with under very various +conditions. All sorts of limestones are composed of more or less pure +carbonate of lime. The crust which is often deposited by waters which +have drained through limestone rocks, in the form of what are called +stalagmites and stalactites, is carbonate of lime. Or, to take a more +familiar example, the fur on the inside of a tea-kettle is carbonate of +lime; and, for anything chemistry tells us to the contrary, the chalk +might be a kind of gigantic fur upon the bottom of the earth-kettle, +which is kept pretty hot below. + +Let us try another method of making the chalk tell us its own history. +To the unassisted eye chalk looks simply like a very loose and open kind +of stone. But it is possible to grind a slice of chalk down so thin that +you can see through it--until it is thin enough, in fact, to be examined +with any magnifying power that may be thought desirable. A thin slice of +the fur of a kettle might be made in the same way. If it were examined +microscopically, it would show itself to be a more or less distinctly +laminated mineral substance and nothing more. + +But the slice of chalk presents a totally different appearance when +placed under the microscope. The general mass of it is made up of very +minute granules; but, imbedded in this matrix, are innumerable bodies, +some smaller and some larger, but, on a rough average, not more than +a hundredth of an inch in diameter, having a well-defined shape and +structure. A cubic inch of some specimens of chalk may contain hundreds +of thousands of these bodies, compacted together with incalculable +millions of the granules. + +The examination of a transparent slice gives a good notion of the manner +in which the components of the chalk are arranged, and of their relative +proportions. But, by rubbing up some chalk with a brush in water and +then pouring off the milky fluid, so as to obtain sediments of different +degrees of fineness, the granules and the minute rounded bodies may be +pretty well separated from one another, and submitted to microscopic +examination, either as opaque or as transparent objects. By combining +the views obtained in these various methods, each of the rounded bodies +may be proved to be a beautifully constructed calcareous fabric, made +up of a number of chambers, communicating freely with one another. The +chambered bodies are of various forms. One of the commonest is something +like a badly grown raspberry, being formed of a number of nearly +globular chambers of different sizes congregated together. It is called +Globigerina, and some specimens of chalk consist of little else than +Globigerina and granules. + +Let us fix our attention upon the Globigerina. It is the spoor of +the game we are tracking. If we can learn what it is and what are the +conditions of its existence, we shall see our way to the origin and past +history of the chalk. + +A suggestion which may naturally enough present itself is, that these +curious bodies are the result of some process of aggregation which has +taken place in the carbonate of lime; that, just as in winter, the rime +on our windows simulates the most delicate and elegantly arborescent +foliage--proving that the mere mineral water may, under certain +conditions, assume the outward form of organic bodies--so this mineral +substance, carbonate of lime, hidden away in the bowels of the earth, +has taken the shape of these chambered bodies. I am not raising a merely +fanciful and unreal objection. Very learned men, in former days, have +even entertained the notion that all the formed things found in rocks +are of this nature; and if no such conception is at present held to be +admissible, it is because long and varied experience has now shown +that mineral matter never does assume the form and structure we find +in fossils. If any one were to try to persuade you that an oyster-shell +(which is also chiefly composed of carbonate of lime) had crystallized +out of sea-water, I suppose you would laugh at the absurdity. Your +laughter would be justified by the fact that all experience tends to +show that oyster-shells are formed by the agency of oysters, and in no +other way. And if there were no better reasons, we should be justified, +on like grounds, in believing that Globigerina is not the product of +anything but vital activity. + +Happily, however, better evidence in proof of the organic nature of the +Globigerinae than that of analogy is forthcoming. It so happens that +calcareous skeletons, exactly similar to the Globigerinae of the chalk, +are being formed, at the present moment, by minute living creatures, +which flourish in multitudes, literally more numerous than the sands of +the sea-shore, over a large extent of that part of the earth's surface +which is covered by the ocean. + +The history of the discovery of these living Globigerinae, and of the +part which they play in rock building, is singular enough. It is a +discovery which, like others of no less scientific importance, has +arisen, incidentally, out of work devoted to very different and +exceedingly practical interests. + +When men first took to the sea, they speedily learned to look out for +shoals and rocks; and the more the burthen of their ships increased, +the more imperatively necessary it became for sailors to ascertain with +precision the depths of the waters they traversed. Out of this +necessity grew the use of the lead and sounding line; and, ultimately, +marine-surveying, which is the recording of the form of coasts and of +the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-lead, upon charts. + +At the same time, it became desirable to ascertain and to indicate the +nature of the sea-bottom, since this circumstance greatly affects its +goodness as holding ground for anchors. Some ingenious tar, whose name +deserves a better fate than the oblivion into which it has fallen, +attained this object by "arming" the bottom of the lead with a lump of +grease, to which more or less of the sand or mud, or broken shells, as +the case might be, adhered, and was brought to the surface. But, however +well adapted such an apparatus might be for rough nautical purposes, +scientific accuracy could not be expected from the armed lead, and to +remedy its defects (especially when applied to sounding in great depths) +Lieut. Brooke,[61] of the American Navy, some years ago invented a most +ingenious machine, by which a considerable portion of the superficial +layer of the sea-bottom can be scooped out and brought up from any depth +to which the lead descends. + +In 1853, Lieut. Brooke obtained mud from the bottom of the North +Atlantic, between Newfoundland and the Azores, at a depth of more than +ten thousand feet, or two miles, by the help of this sounding apparatus. +The specimens were sent for examination to Ehrenberg [62] of Berlin, +and to Bailey of West Point,[63] and those able microscopists found +that this deep-sea mud was almost entirely composed of the skeletons of +living organisms--the greater proportion of these being just like the +Globigerinae already known to occur in the chalk. + +Thus far, the work had been carried on simply in the interests of +science, but Lieut. Brooke's method of sounding acquired a high +commercial value, when the enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable +[64] between this country and the United States was undertaken. For it +became a matter of immense importance to know, not only the depth of the +sea over the whole line along which the cable was to be laid, but the +exact nature of the bottom, so as to guard against chances of cutting +or fraying the strands of that costly rope. The Admiralty consequently +ordered Captain Dayman, an old friend and shipmate of mine, to ascertain +the depth over the whole line of the cable, and to bring back specimens +of the bottom. In former days, such a command as this might have sounded +very much like one of the impossible things which the young prince in +the Fairy Tales is ordered to do before he can obtain the hand of the +Princess. However, in the months of June and July, 1857, my friend +performed the task assigned to him with great expedition and precision +without, so far as I know, having met with any reward of that kind. +The specimens of Atlantic mud which he procured were sent to me to be +examined and reported upon.* + + * See Appendix to Captain Dayman's "Deep-sea Soundings in + the North Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland and Newfoundland, + made in H.M.S. Cyclops. Published by order of the Lords + Commissioners of the Admiralty, 1858." They have since + formed the subject of an elaborate Memoir by Messrs. Parker + and Jones, published in the Philosophical Transactions for + 1865. + +The result of all these operations is, that we know the contours and the +nature of the surface-soil covered by the North Atlantic, for a distance +of seventeen hundred miles from east to west, as well as we know that of +any part of the dry land. + +It is a prodigious plain--one of the widest and most even plains in the +world. If the sea were drained off, you might drive a wagon all the +way from Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland, to Trinity Bay, in +Newfoundland. And, except upon one sharp incline about two hundred miles +from Valentia, I am not quite sure that it would even be necessary to +put the skid on, so gentle are the ascents and descents upon that long +route. From Valentia the road would lie down-hill for about 200 miles +to the point at which the bottom is now covered by 1700 fathoms of +sea-water. Then would come the central plain, more than a thousand +miles wide, the inequalities of the surface of which would be hardly +perceptible, though the depth of water upon it now varies from 10,000 +to 15,000 feet; and there are places in which Mont Blanc might be sunk +without showing its peak above water. Beyond this, the ascent on the +American side commences, and gradually leads, for about 300 miles, to +the Newfoundland shore. + +Almost the whole of the bottom of this central plain (which extends for +many hundred miles in a north and south direction) is covered by a fine +mud, which, when brought to the surface, dries into a greyish-white +friable substance. You can write with this on a blackboard, if you are +so inclined; and, to the eye, it is quite like very soft, greyish chalk. +Examined chemically, it proves to be composed almost wholly of carbonate +of lime; and if you make a section of it, in the same way as that of the +piece of chalk was made, and view it with the microscope, it presents +innumerable Globigerinae embedded in a granular matrix. + +Thus this deep-sea mud is substantially chalk. I say substantially, +because there are a good many minor differences; but as these have no +bearing on the question immediately before us,--which is the nature of +the Globigerinae of the chalk,--it is unnecessary to speak of them. + +Globigerinae of every size, from the smallest to the largest, are +associated together in the Atlantic mud, and the chambers of many are +filled by a soft animal matter. This soft substance is, in fact, the +remains of the creature to which the Globigerina shell, or rather +skeleton, owes its existence--and which is an animal of the simplest +imaginable description. It is, in fact, a mere particle of living jelly, +without defined parts of any kind--without a mouth, nerves, muscles, +or distinct organs, and only manifesting its vitality to ordinary +observation by thrusting out and retracting from all parts of its +surface, long filamentous processes, which serve for arms and legs. +Yet this amorphous particle, devoid of everything which, in the higher +animals, we call organs, is capable of feeding, growing and multiplying; +of separating from the ocean the small proportion of carbonate of lime +which is dissolved in sea-water; and of building up that substance into +a skeleton for itself, according to a pattern which can be imitated by +no other known agency. + +The notion that animals can live and flourish in the sea, at the vast +depths from which apparently living Globigerinae have been brought +up, does not agree very well with our usual conceptions respecting the +conditions of animal life; and it is not so absolutely impossible as +it might at first appear to be, that the Globigerinae of the Atlantic +sea-bottom do not live and die where they are found. + +As I have mentioned, the soundings from the great Atlantic plain are +almost entirely made up of Globigerinae, with the granules which +have been mentioned and some few other calcareous shells; but a small +percentage of the chalky mud--perhaps at most some five per cent of +it--is of a different nature, and consists of shells and skeletons +composed of silex, or pure flint. These silicious bodies belong partly +to the lowly vegetable organisms which are called Diatomaceae, and +partly to the minute, and extremely simple, animals, termed Radiolaria. +It is quite certain that these creatures do not live at the bottom of +the ocean, but at its surface--where they may be obtained in prodigious +numbers by the use of a properly constructed net. Hence it follows that +these silicious organisms, though they are not heavier than the lightest +dust, must have fallen, in some cases, through fifteen thousand feet of +water, before they reached their final resting-place on the ocean floor. +And, considering how large a surface these bodies expose in proportion +to their weight, it is probable that they occupy a great length of time +in making their burial journey from the surface of the Atlantic to the +bottom. + +But if the Radiolaria and Diatoms are thus rained upon the bottom of the +sea, from the superficial layer of its waters in which they pass their +lives, it is obviously possible that the Globigerinae may be similarly +derived; and if they were so, it would be much more easy to +understand how they obtain their supply of food than it is at present. +Nevertheless, the positive and negative evidence all points the other +way. The skeletons of the full-grown, deep-sea Globigerinae are so +remarkably solid and heavy in proportion to their surface as to seem +little fitted for floating; and, as a matter of fact, they are not to be +found along with the Diatoms and Radiolaria, in the uppermost stratum of +the open ocean. + +It has been observed, again, that the abundance of Globigerinae, in +proportion to other organisms, of like kind, increases with the depth +of the sea; and that deep-water Globigerinae are larger than those +which live in shallower parts of the sea; and such facts negative the +supposition that these organisms have been swept by currents from the +shallows into the deeps of the Atlantic. + +It therefore seems to be hardly doubtful that these wonderful creatures +live and die at the depths in which they are found. + +However, the important points for us are, that the living Globigerinae +are exclusively marine animals, the skeletons of which abound at the +bottom of deep seas; and that there is not a shadow of reason for +believing that the habits of the Globigerinae of the chalk differed from +those of the existing species. But if this be true, there is no escaping +the conclusion that the chalk itself is the dried mud of an ancient deep +sea. + +In working over the soundings collected by Captain Dayman, I was +surprised to find that many of what I have called the "granules" of that +mud, were not, as one might have been tempted to think at first, the +mere powder and waste of Globigerinae, but that they had a definite form +and size. I termed these bodies "coccoliths," and doubted their +organic nature. Dr. Wallich [65] verified my observation, and added the +interesting discovery, that, not unfrequently, bodies similar to these +"coccoliths" were aggregated together into spheroids, which he termed +"coccospheres." So far as we knew, these bodies, the nature of which +is extremely puzzling and problematical, were peculiar to the Atlantic +soundings. + +But, a few years ago, Mr. Sorby,[66] in making a careful examination +of the chalk by means of thin sections and otherwise, observed, as +Ehrenberg had done before him, that much of its granular basis possesses +a definite form. Comparing these formed particles with those in the +Atlantic soundings, he found the two to be identical; and thus proved +that the chalk, like the soundings, contains these mysterious +coccoliths and coccospheres. Here was a further and a most interesting +confirmation, from internal evidence, of the essential identity of +the chalk with modern deep-sea mud. Globigerinae, coccoliths, and +coccospheres are round as the chief constituents of both, and testify +to the general similarity of the conditions under which both have been +formed. + +The evidence furnished by the hewing, facing, and superposition of the +stones of the Pyramids, that these structures were built by men, has +no greater weight than the evidence that the chalk was built by +Globigerinae; and the belief that those ancient pyramid-builders were +terrestrial and air-breathing creatures like ourselves, is it not better +based than the conviction that the chalk-makers lived in the sea? + +But as our belief in the building of the Pyramids by men is not only +grounded on the internal evidences afforded by these structures, but +gathers strength from multitudinous collateral proofs, and is clinched +by the total absence of any reason for a contrary belief; so the +evidence drawn from the Globigerinae that the chalk is an ancient +sea-bottom, is fortified by innumerable independent lines of evidence; +and our belief in the truth of the conclusion to which all positive +testimony tends, receives the like negative justification from the fact +that no other hypothesis has a shadow of foundation. + +It may be worth while briefly to consider a few of these collateral +proofs that the chalk was deposited at the bottom of the sea. + +The great mass of the chalk is composed, as we have seen, of the +skeletons of Globigerinae, and other simple organisms, imbedded in +granular matter. Here and there, however, this hardened mud of the +ancient sea reveals the remains of higher animals which have lived and +died, and left their hard parts in the mud, just as the oysters die and +leave their shells behind them, in the mud of the present seas. + +There are, at the present day, certain groups of animals which are never +found in fresh waters, being unable to live anywhere but in the sea. +Such are the corals; those corallines which are called Polycoa; those +creatures which fabricate the lamp-shells, and are called Brachiopoda; +the pearly Nautilus, and all animals allied to it; and all the forms of +sea-urchins and star-fishes. + +Not only are all these creatures confined to salt water at the present +day; but, so far as our records of the past go, the conditions of their +existence have been the same: hence, their occurrence in any deposit is +as strong evidence as can be obtained, that that deposit was formed in +the sea. Now the remains of animals of all the kinds which have been +enumerated, occur in the chalk, in greater or less abundance; while not +one of those forms of shell-fish which are characteristic of fresh water +has yet been observed in it. + +When we consider that the remains of more than three thousand distinct +species of aquatic animals have been discovered among the fossils of the +chalk, that the great majority of them are of such forms as are now met +with only in the sea, and that there is no reason to believe that any +one of them inhabited fresh water--the collateral evidence that the +chalk represents an ancient sea-bottom acquires as great force as the +proof derived from the nature of the chalk itself. I think you will now +allow that I did not overstate my case when I asserted that we have +as strong grounds for believing that all the vast area of dry land, at +present occupied by the chalk, was once at the bottom of the sea, as we +have for any matter of history whatever; while there is no justification +for any other belief. + +No less certain it is that the time during which the countries we now +call south-east England, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Arabia, +Syria, were more or less completely covered by a deep sea, was of +considerable duration. + +We have already seen that the chalk is, in places, more than a thousand +feet thick. I think you will agree with me, that it must have taken +some time for the skeletons of animalcules of a hundredth of an inch in +diameter to heap up such a mass as that. I have said that throughout the +thickness of the chalk the remains of other animals are scattered. +These remains are often in the most exquisite state of preservation. +The valves of the shell-fishes are commonly adherent; the long spines +of some of the sea-urchins, which would be detached by the smallest +jar, often remain in their places. In a word, it is certain that these +animals have lived and died when the place which they now occupy was +the surface of as much of the chalk as had then been deposited; and that +each has been covered up by the layer of Globigerina mud, upon which the +creatures imbedded a little higher up have, in like manner, lived and +died. But some of these remains prove the existence of reptiles of vast +size in the chalk sea. These lived their time, and had their ancestors +and descendants, which assuredly implies time, reptiles being of slow +growth. + +There is more curious evidence, again, that the process of covering up, +or, in other words, the deposit of Globigerina skeletons, did not go on +very fast. It is demonstrable that an animal of the cretaceous sea might +die, that its skeleton might lie uncovered upon the sea-bottom long +enough to lose all its outward coverings and appendages by putrefaction; +and that, after this had happened, another animal might attach itself +to the dead and naked skeleton, might grow to maturity, and might itself +die before the calcareous mud had buried the whole. + +Cases of this kind are admirably described by Sir Charles Lyell.[67] +He speaks of the frequency with which geologists find in the chalk a +fossilized sea-urchin, to which is attached the lower valve of a Crania. +This is a kind of shell-fish, with a shell composed of two pieces, of +which, as in the oyster, one is fixed and the other free. + +"The upper valve is almost invariably wanting, though occasionally found +in a perfect state of preservation in the white chalk at some distance. +In this case, we see clearly that the sea-urchin first lived from youth +to age, then died and lost its spines, which were carried away. Then the +young Crania adhered to the bared shell, grew and perished in its turn; +after which, the upper valve was separated from the lower, before the +Echinus [68] became enveloped in chalky mud." + +A specimen in the Museum of Practical Geology, in London, still further +prolongs the period which must have elapsed between the death of the +sea-urchin, and its burial by the Globigerinae. For the outward face of +the valve of a Crania, which is attached to a sea-urchin (Micraster), +is itself overrun by an incrusting coralline, which spreads thence over +more or less of the surface of the sea-urchin. It follows that, after +the upper valve of the Crania fell off, the surface of the attached +valve must have remained exposed long enough to allow of the growth of +the whole corraline, since corallines do not live imbedded in mud. + +The progress of knowledge may, one day, enable us to deduce from such +facts as these the maximum rate at which the chalk can have accumulated, +and thus to arrive at the minimum duration of the chalk period. Suppose +that the valve of the Crania upon which a coralline has fixed itself in +the way just described, is so attached to the sea-urchin that no part of +it is more than an inch above the face upon which the sea-urchin rests. +Then, as the coralline could not have fixed itself, if the Crania had +been covered up with chalk mud, and could not have lived had itself +been so covered it follows, that an inch of chalk mud could not have +accumulated within the time between the death and decay of the soft +parts of the sea-urchin and the growth of the coralline to the full size +which it has attained. If the decay of the soft parts of the sea-urchin; +the attachment, growth to maturity, and decay of the Crania; and the +subsequent attachment and growth of the coralline, took a year (which is +a low estimate enough), the accumulation of the inch of chalk must have +taken more than a year: and the deposit of a thousand feet of chalk +must, consequently, have taken more than twelve thousand years. + +The foundation of all this calculation is, of course, a knowledge of the +length of time the Crania and the coralline needed to attain their full +size; and, on this head, precise knowledge is at present wanting. But +there are circumstances which tend to show, that nothing like an inch of +chalk has accumulated during the life of a Crania; and, on any probable +estimate of the length of that life, the chalk period must have had a +much longer duration than that thus roughly assigned to it. + + +Thus, not only is it certain that the chalk is the mud of an ancient +sea-bottom; but it is no less certain, that the chalk sea existed +during an extremely long period, though we may not be prepared to give +a precise estimate of the length of that period in years. The relative +duration is clear, though the absolute duration may not be definable. +The attempt to affix any precise date to the period at which the chalk +sea began, or ended, its existence, is baffled by difficulties of +the same kind. But the relative age of the cretaceous epoch may be +determined with as great ease and certainty as the long duration of that +epoch. + +You will have heard of the interesting discoveries recently made, in +various parts of Western Europe, of flint implements, obviously worked +into shape by human hands, under circumstances which show conclusively +that man is a very ancient denizen of these regions. + +It has been proved that the old populations of Europe, whose existence +has been revealed to us in this way, consisted of savages, such as the +Esquimaux are now; that, in the country which is now France, they hunted +the reindeer, and were familiar with the ways of the mammoth and the +bison. The physical geography of France was in those days different from +what it is now--the river Somme,[69] for instance, having cut its bed +a hundred feet deeper between that time and this; and, it is probable, +that the climate was more like that of Canada or Siberia, than that of +Western Europe. + +The existence of these people is forgotten even in the traditions of +the oldest historical nations. The name and fame of them had utterly +vanished until a few years back; and the amount of physical change which +has been effected since their day, renders it more than probable that, +venerable as are some of the historical nations, the workers of the +chipped flints of Hoxne or of Amiens [70] are to them, as they are to +us, in point of antiquity. + +But, if we assign to these hoar relics of long-vanished generations of +men the greatest age that can possibly be claimed for them, they are +not older than the drift, or boulder clay, which, in comparison with the +chalk, is but a very juvenile deposit. You need go no further than your +own sea-board for evidence of this fact. At one of the most charming +spots on the coast of Norfolk, Cromer, you will see the boulder clay +forming a vast mass, which lies upon the chalk, and must consequently +have come into existence after it. Huge boulders of chalk are, in fact, +included in the clay, and have evidently been brought to the position +they now occupy, by the same agency as that which has planted blocks of +syenite from Norway side by side with them. + +The chalk, then, is certainly older than the boulder clay. If you ask +how much, I will again take you no further than the same spot upon your +own coasts for evidence. I have spoken of the boulder clay and drift as +resting upon the chalk. That is not strictly true. Interposed between +the chalk and the drift is a comparatively insignificant layer, +containing vegetable matter. But that layer tells a wonderful history. +It is full of stumps of trees standing as they grew. Fir-trees are there +with their cones, and hazel-bushes with their nuts; there stand the +stools of oak and yew trees, beeches and alders. Hence this stratum is +appropriately called the "forest-bed." + +It is obvious that the chalk must have been up-heaved and converted into +dry land, before the timber trees could grow upon it. As the boles of +some of these trees are from two to three feet in diameter, it is no +less clear that the dry land this formed remained in the same condition +for long ages. And not only do the remains of stately oaks and +well-grown firs testify to the duration of this condition of things, +but additional evidence to the same effect is afforded by the abundant +remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotomuses and other great wild +beasts, which it has yielded to the zealous search of such men as the +Rev. Mr. Gunn.[71] + +When you look at such a collection as he has formed, and bethink you +that these elephantine bones did veritably carry their owners about, and +these great grinders crunch, in the dark woods of which the forest-bed +is now the only trace, it is impossible not to feel that they are +as good evidence of the lapse of time as the annual rings of the +tree-stumps. + +Thus there is a writing upon the walls of cliffs at Cromer, and whoso +runs may read it. It tells us, with an authority which cannot be +impeached, that the ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and +remained dry land, until it was covered with forest, stocked with the +great game whose spoils have rejoiced your geologists. How long it +remained in that condition cannot be said; but "the whirligig of time +[72] brought its revenges" in those days as in these. That dry land, +with the bones and teeth of generations of long-lived elephants, hidden +away among the gnarled roots and dry leaves of its ancient trees, sank +gradually to the bottom of the icy sea, which covered it with huge +masses of drift and boulder clay. Sea-beasts, such as the walrus, now +restricted to the extreme north, paddled about where birds had twittered +among the topmost twigs of the fir-trees. How long this state of things +endured we know not, but at length it came to an end. The upheaved +glacial mud hardened into the soil of modern Norfolk. Forests grew once +more, the wolf and the beaver replaced the reindeer and the elephant; +and at length what we call the history of England dawned. + +Thus you have within the limits of your own county, proof that the chalk +can justly claim a very much greater antiquity than even the oldest +physical traces of mankind. But we may go further and demonstrate, by +evidence of the same authority as that which testifies to the existence +of the father of men, that the chalk is vastly older than Adam himself. + +The Book of Genesis informs us that Adam, immediately upon his creation, +and before the appearance of Eve, was placed in the Garden of Eden. +The problem of the geographical position of Eden has greatly vexed +the spirits of the learned in such matters, but there is one point +respecting which, so far as I know, no commentator has ever raised a +doubt. This is, that of the four rivers which are said to run out of it, +Euphrates and Hiddekel [73] are identical with the rivers now known by +the names of Euphrates and Tigris. + +But the whole country in which these mighty rivers take their origin, +and through which they run, is composed of rocks which are either of the +same age as the chalk, or of later date. So that the chalk must not only +have been formed, but, after its formation, the time required for the +deposit of these later rocks, and for their upheaval into dry land, must +have elapsed, before the smallest brook which feeds the swift stream of +"the great river, the river of Babylon,"[74] began to flow. + + +Thus, evidence which cannot be rebutted, and which need not be +strengthened, though if time permitted I might indefinitely increase its +quantity, compels you to believe that the earth, from the time of the +chalk to the present day, has been the theatre of a series of changes as +vast in their amount, as they were slow in their progress. The area +on which we stand has been first sea and then land, for at least four +alternations; and has remained in each of these conditions for a period +of great length. + +Nor have these wonderful metamorphoses of sea into land, and of land +into sea, been confined to one corner of England. During the chalk +period, or "cretaceous epoch," not one of the present great physical +features of the globe was in existence. Our great mountain ranges, +Pyrenees, Alps, Himalayas, Andes, have all been upheaved since the chalk +was deposited, and the cretaceous sea flowed over the sites of Sinai and +Ararat. + +All this is certain, because rocks of cretaceous, or still later, date +have shared in the elevatory movements which gave rise to these mountain +chains; and may be found perched up, in some cases, many thousand feet +high upon their flanks. And evidence of equal cogency demonstrates that, +though, in Norfolk, the forest-bed rests directly upon the chalk, yet +it does so, not because the period at which the forest grew immediately +followed that at which the chalk was formed, but because an immense +lapse of time, represented elsewhere by thousands of feet of rock, is +not indicated at Cromer. + +I must ask you to believe that there is no less conclusive proof that a +still more prolonged succession of similar changes occurred, before the +chalk was deposited. Nor have we any reason to think that the first term +in the series of these changes is known. The oldest sea-beds preserved +to us are sands, and mud, and pebbles, the wear and tear of rocks which +were formed in still older oceans. + +But, great as is the magnitude of these physical changes of the world, +they have been accompanied by a no less striking series of modifications +in its living inhabitants. + +All the great classes of animals, beasts of the field, fowls of the air, +creeping things, and things which dwell in the waters, flourished upon +the globe long ages before the chalk was deposited. Very few, however, +if any, of these ancient forms of animal life were identical with those +which now live. Certainly not one of the higher animals was of the same +species as any of those now in existence. The beasts of the field, in +the days before the chalk, were not our beasts of the field, nor the +fowls of the air such as those which the eye of men has seen flying, +unless his antiquity dates infinitely further back than we at present +surmise. If we could be carried back into those times, we should be as +one suddenly set down in Australia before it was colonized. We should +see mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, snails, and the like, +clearly recognisable as such, and yet not one of them would be just the +same as those with which we are familiar, and many would be extremely +different. + +From that time to the present, the population of the world has undergone +slow and gradual, but incessant changes. There has been no grand +catastrophe--no destroyer has swept away the forms of life of one +period, and replaced them by a totally new creation; but one species +has vanished and another has taken its place; creatures of one type of +structure have diminished, those of another have increased, as time has +passed on. And thus, while the differences between the living creatures +of the time before the chalk and those of the present day appear +startling, if placed side by side, we are led from one to the other by +the most gradual progress, if we follow the course of Nature through +the whole series of those relics of her operations which she has left +behind. + +And it is by the population of the chalk sea that the ancient and the +modern inhabitants of the world are most completely connected. The +groups which are dying out flourish, side by side, with the groups which +are now the dominant forms of life. + +Thus the chalk contains remains of those strange flying and swimming +reptiles, the pterodactyl, the ichthyosaurus, and the plesiosaurus, +which are found in no later deposits, but abounded in preceding ages. +The chambered shells called ammonites and belemnites, which are so +characteristic of the period preceding the cretaceous, in like manner +die with it. + +But, amongst these fading remainders of a previous state of things, +are some very modern forms of life, looking like Yankee pedlars among +a tribe of Red Indians. Crocodiles of modern type appear; bony fishes, +many of them very similar to existing species almost supplant the forms +of fish which predominate in more ancient seas; and many kinds of living +shellfish first become known to us in the chalk. The vegetation acquires +a modern aspect. A few living animals are not even distinguishable as +species, from those which existed at that remote epoch. The Globigerina +of the present day, for example, is not different specifically from that +of the chalk; and the same may be said of many other Foraminifera. I +think it probable that critical and unprejudiced examination will show +that more than one species of much higher animals have had a similar +longevity; but the only example, which I can at present give confidently +is the snake's-head lamp-shell (Terebratulina caput serpentis), which +lives in our English seas and abounded (as Terebratulina striata of +authors) in the chalk. + +The longest line of human ancestry must hide its diminished head before +the pedigree of this insignificant shell-fish. We Englishmen are proud +to have an ancestor who was present at the Battle of Hastings. The +ancestors of Terebratulina caput serpentis may have been present at a +battle of Ichthyosauria in that part of the sea which, when the chalk +was forming, flowed over the site of Hastings. While all around has +changed, this Terebratulina has peacefully propagated its species from +generation to generation, and stands to this day, as a living testimony +to the continuity of the present with the past history of the globe. + + +Up to this moment I have stated, so far as I know, nothing but +well-authenticated facts, and the immediate conclusions which they force +upon the mind. + +But the mind is so constituted that it does not willingly rest in facts +and immediate causes, but seeks always after a knowledge of the remoter +links in the chain of causation. + +Taking the many changes of any given spot of the earth's surface, from +sea to land and from land to sea, as an established fact, we cannot +refrain from asking ourselves how these changes have occurred. And when +we have explained them--as they must be explained--by the alternate slow +movements of elevation and depression which have affected the crust of +the earth, we go still further back, and ask, Why these movements? + +I am not certain that any one can give you a satisfactory answer to that +question. Assuredly I cannot. All that can be said, for certain, is, +that such movements are part of the ordinary course of nature, inasmuch +as they are going on at the present time. Direct proof may be given, +that some parts of the land of the northern hemisphere are at this +moment insensibly rising and others insensibly sinking; and there is +indirect, but perfectly satisfactory, proof, that an enormous area now +covered by the Pacific has been deepened thousands of feet, since the +present inhabitants of that sea came into existence. + +Thus there is not a shadow of a reason for believing that the physical +changes of the globe, in past times have been effected by other than +natural causes. + +Is there any more reason for believing that the concomitant +modifications in the forms of the living inhabitants of the globe have +been brought about in other ways? + +Before attempting to answer this question, let us try to form a distinct +mental picture of what has happened, in some special case. + +The crocodiles are animals which, as a group, have a very vast +antiquity. They abounded ages before the chalk was deposited; they +throng the rivers in warm climates, at the present day. There is a +difference in the form of the joints of the back-bone, and in some minor +particulars, between the crocodiles of the present epoch and those which +lived before the chalk; but in the cretaceous epoch, as I have already +mentioned, the crocodiles had assumed the modern type of structure. +Notwithstanding this, the crocodiles of the chalk are not identically +the same as those which lived in the times called "older tertiary," +which succeeded the cretaceous epoch; and the crocodiles of the older +tertiaries are not identical with those of the newer tertiaries, nor are +these identical with existing forms. I leave open the question whether +particular species may have lived on from epoch to epoch. But each +epoch has had its peculiar crocodiles; though all, since the chalk, have +belonged to the modern type, and differ simply in their proportions, and +in such structural particulars as are discernible only to trained eyes. + +How is the existence of this long succession of different species of +crocodiles to be accounted for? + +Only two suppositions seem to be open to us--Either each species of +crocodile has been specially created, or it has arisen out of some +pre-existing form by the operation of natural causes. + +Choose your hypothesis; I have chosen mine. I can find no warranty for +believing in the distinct creation of a score of successive species of +crocodiles in the course of countless ages of time. Science gives no +countenance to such a wild fancy; nor can even the perverse ingenuity +of a commentator pretend to discover this sense, in the simple words +in which the writer of Genesis records the proceedings of the fifth and +sixth days of the Creation. + +On the other hand, I see no good reason for doubting the necessary +alternative, that all these varied species have been evolved from +pre-existing crocodilian forms, by the operation of causes as completely +a part of the common order of nature, as those which have effected the +changes of the inorganic world. + +Few will venture to affirm that the reasoning which applies to +crocodiles loses its force among other animals, or among plants. If one +series of species has come into existence by the operation of natural +causes, it seems folly to deny that all may have arisen in the same way. + + +A small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I were to put the bit +of chalk with which we started into the hot but obscure flame of burning +hydrogen, it would presently shine like the sun. It seems to me that +this physical metamorphosis is no false image of what has been +the result of our subjecting it to a jet of fervent, though nowise +brilliant, thought to-night. It has become luminous, and its clear rays, +penetrating the abyss of the remote past, have brought within our ken +some stages of the evolution of the earth. And in the shifting "without +haste, but without rest"[75] of the land and sea, as in the endless +variation of the forms assumed by living beings, we have observed +nothing but the natural product of the forces originally possessed by +the substance of the universe. + + + + +THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION [76] + + +I know quite well that launching myself into this discussion [77] is a +very dangerous operation; that it is a very large subject, and one +which is difficult to deal with, however much I may trespass upon +your patience in the time allotted to me. But the discussion is so +fundamental, it is so completely impossible to make up one's mind on +these matters until one has settled the question, that I will even +venture to make the experiment. A great lawyer-statesman and philosopher +of a former age--I mean Francis Bacon [78]--said that truth came out +of error much more rapidly than it came out of confusion. There is a +wonderful truth in that saying. Next to being right in this world, the +best of all things is to be clearly and definitely wrong, because you +will come out somewhere. If you go buzzing about between right and +wrong, vibrating and fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are +absolutely and thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some of +these days, have the extreme good fortune of knocking your head against +a fact, and that sets you all straight again. So I will not trouble +myself as to whether I may be right or wrong in what I am about to say, +but at any rate I hope to be clear and definite; and then you will be +able to judge for yourselves whether, in following out the train of +thought I have to introduce, you knock your heads against facts or not. + +I take it that the whole object of education is, in the first place, +to train the faculties of the young in such a manner as to give their +possessors the best chance of being happy [79] and useful in their +generation; and, in the second place, to furnish them with the most +important portions of that immense capitalised experience of the human +race which we call knowledge of various kinds. I am using the term +knowledge in its widest possible sense; and the question is, what +subjects to select by training and discipline, in which the object I +have just defined may be best attained. + +I must call your attention further to this fact, that all the subjects +of our thoughts--all feelings and propositions (leaving aside our +sensations as the mere materials and occasions of thinking and feeling), +all our mental furniture--may be classified under one of two heads--as +either within the province of the intellect, something that can be put +into propositions and affirmed or denied; or as within the province +of feeling, or that which, before the name was defiled, was called +the aesthetic side of our nature, and which can neither be proved nor +disproved, but only felt and known. + +According to the classification which I have put before you, then, the +subjects of all knowledge are divisible into the two groups, matters +of science and matters of art; for all things with which the reasoning +faculty alone is occupied, come under the province of science; and in +the broadest sense, and not in the narrow and technical sense in which +we are now accustomed to use the word art, all things feelable, all +things which stir our emotions, come under the term of art, in the sense +of the subject-matter of the aesthetic faculty. So that we are shut +up to this--that the business of education is, in the first place, to +provide the young with the means and the habit of observation; and, +secondly, to supply the subject-matter of knowledge either in the shape +of science or of art, or of both combined. + +Now, it is a very remarkable fact--but it is true of most things in this +world--that there is hardly anything one-sided, or of one nature; and +it is not immediately obvious what of the things that interest us may be +regarded as pure science, and what may be regarded as pure art. It may +be that there are some peculiarly constituted persons who, before they +have advanced far into the depths of geometry, find artistic beauty +about it; but, taking the generality of mankind, I think it may be +said that, when they begin to learn mathematics, their whole souls +are absorbed in tracing the connection between the premisses and the +conclusion, and that to them geometry is pure science. So I think it +may be said that mechanics and osteology are pure science. On the other +hand, melody in music is pure art. You cannot reason about it; there +is no proposition involved in it. So, again, in the pictorial art, an +arabesque, or a "harmony in grey,"[80] touches none but the aesthetic +faculty. But a great mathematician, and even many persons who are not +great mathematicians, will tell you that they derive immense pleasure +from geometrical reasonings. Everybody knows mathematicians speak of +solutions and problems as "elegant," and they tell you that a certain +mass of mystic symbols is "beautiful, quite lovely." Well, you do not +see it. They do see it, because the intellectual process, the process of +comprehending the reasons symbolised by these figures and these signs, +confers upon them a sort of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual +symmetry. Take a science of which I may speak with more confidence, and +which is the most attractive of those I am concerned with. It is what we +call morphology, which consists in tracing out the unity in variety of +the infinitely diversified structures of animals and plants. I cannot +give you any example of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely +real than a pleasure of this kind--the pleasure which arises in one's +mind when a whole mass of different structures run into one harmony +as the expression of a central law. That is where the province of art +overlays and embraces the province of intellect. And, if I may venture +to express an opinion on such a subject, the great majority of forms of +art are not in the sense what I just now defined them to be--pure +art; but they derive much of their quality from simultaneous and even +unconscious excitement of the intellect. + +When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so now; and it so +happened that I had the opportunity of hearing much good music. Among +other things, I had abundant opportunities of hearing that great old +master, Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well--though I knew +nothing about music then, and, I may add, know nothing whatever about it +now--the intense satisfaction and delight which I had in listening, by +the hour together, to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure which remains with +me, I am glad to think; but, of late years, I have tried to find out +the why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me that the pleasure +derived from musical compositions of this kind is essentially of the +same nature as that which is derived from pursuits which are commonly +regarded as purely intellectual. I mean, that the source of pleasure is +exactly the same as in most of my problems in morphology--that you +have the theme in one of the old master's works followed out in all its +endless variations, always appearing and always reminding you of unity +in variety. So in painting; what is called "truth to nature" is the +intellectual element coming in, and truth to nature depends entirely +upon the intellectual culture of the person to whom art is addressed. If +you are in Australia, you may get credit for being a good artist--I +mean among the natives--if you can draw a kangaroo after a fashion. But, +among men of higher civilisation, the intellectual knowledge we possess +brings its criticism into our appreciation of works of art, and we are +obliged to satisfy it, as well as the mere sense of beauty in colour and +in outline. And so, the higher the culture and information of those +whom art addresses, the more exact and precise must be what we call its +"truth to nature." + +If we turn to literature, the same thing is true, and you find works +of literature which may be said to be pure art. A little song of +Shakespeare or of Goethe is pure art; it is exquisitely beautiful, +although its intellectual content may be nothing. A series of pictures +is made to pass before your mind by the meaning of words, and the effect +is a melody of ideas. Nevertheless, the great mass of the literature +we esteem is valued, not merely because of having artistic form, but +because of its intellectual content; and the value is the higher the +more precise, distinct, and true is that intellectual content. And, +if you will let me for a moment speak of the very highest forms of +literature, do we not regard them as highest simply because the more we +know the truer they seem, and the more competent we are to appreciate +beauty the more beautiful they are? No man ever understands Shakespeare +until he is old, though the youngest may admire him, the reason being +that he satisfies the artistic instinct of the youngest and harmonises +with the ripest and richest experience of the oldest. + +I have said this much to draw your attention to what, in my mind, lies +at the root of all this matter, and at the understanding of one another +by the men of science on the one hand, and the men of literature, and +history, and art, on the other. It is not a question whether one order +of study or another should predominate. It is a question of what +topics of education you shall select which will combine all the needful +elements in such due proportion as to give the greatest amount of +food, support, and encouragement to those faculties which enable us to +appreciate truth, and to profit by those sources of innocent happiness +which are open to us, and, at the same time, to avoid that which is bad, +and coarse, and ugly, and keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls and +dangers which beset those who break through the natural or moral laws. + +I address myself, in this spirit, to the consideration of the question +of the value of purely literary education. Is it good and sufficient, or +is it insufficient and bad? Well, here I venture to say that there are +literary educations and literary educations. If I am to understand +by that term the education that was current in the great majority of +middle-class schools, and upper schools too, in this country when I was +a boy, and which consisted absolutely and almost entirely in keeping +boys for eight or ten years at learning the rules of Latin and Greek +grammar, construing certain Latin and Greek authors, and possibly making +verses which, had they been English verses, would have been condemned +as abominable doggerel,--if that is what you mean by liberal education, +then I say it is scandalously insufficient and almost worthless. My +reason for saying so is not from the point of view of science at all, +but from the point of view of literature. I say the thing professes to +be literary education that is not a literary education at all. It was +not literature at all that was taught, but science in a very bad form. +It is quite obvious that grammar is science and not literature. The +analysis of a text by the help of the rules of grammar is just as much a +scientific operation as the analysis of a chemical compound by the help +of the rules of chemical analysis. There is nothing that appeals to the +aesthetic faculty in that operation; and I ask multitudes of men of +my own age, who went through this process, whether they ever had a +conception of art or literature until they obtained it for themselves +after leaving school? Then you may say, "If that is so, if the education +was scientific, why cannot you be satisfied with it?" I say, because +although it is a scientific training, it is of the most inadequate and +inappropriate kind. If there is any good at all in scientific education +it is that men should be trained, as I said before, to know things for +themselves at first hand, and that they should understand every step of +the reason of that which they do. + +I desire to speak with the utmost respect of that science--philology--of +which grammar is a part and parcel; yet everybody knows that grammar, as +it is usually learned at school, affords no scientific training. It is +taught just as you would teach the rules of chess or draughts. On the +other hand, if I am to understand by a literary education the study +of the literatures of either ancient or modern nations--but especially +those of antiquity, and especially that of ancient Greece; if this +literature is studied, not merely from the point of view of philological +science, and its practical application to the interpretation of texts, +but as an exemplification of and commentary upon the principles of +art; if you look upon the literature of a people as a chapter in the +development of the human mind, if you work out this in a broad spirit, +and with such collateral references to morals and politics, and physical +geography, and the like as are needful to make you comprehend what the +meaning of ancient literature and civilisation is,--then, assuredly, +it affords a splendid and noble education. But I still think it is +susceptible of improvement, and that no man will ever comprehend the +real secret of the difference between the ancient world and our present +time, unless he has learned to see the difference which the late +development of physical science has made between the thought of this day +and the thought of that, and he will never see that difference, unless +he has some practical insight into some branches of physical science; +and you must remember that a literary education such as that which I +have just referred to, is out of the reach of those whose school life is +cut short at sixteen or seventeen. + +But, you will say, all this is fault-finding; let us hear what you have +in the way of positive suggestion. Then I am bound to tell you that, +if I could make a clean sweep of everything--I am very glad I cannot +because I might, and probably should, make mistakes,--but if I could +make a clean sweep of everything and start afresh, I should, in the +first place, secure that training of the young in reading and writing, +and in the habit of attention and observation, both to that which is +told them, and that which they see, which everybody agrees to. But in +addition to that, I should make it absolutely necessary for everybody, +for a longer or shorter period, to learn to draw. Now, you may say, +there are some people who cannot draw, however much they may be taught. +I deny that in toto, because I never yet met with anybody who could not +learn to write. Writing is a form of drawing; therefore if you give the +same attention and trouble to drawing as you do to writing, depend upon +it, there is nobody who cannot be made to draw, more or less well. +Do not misapprehend me. I do not say for one moment you would make an +artistic draughtsman. Artists are not made; they grow. You may improve +the natural faculty in that direction, but you cannot make it; but you +can teach simple drawing, and you will find it an implement of learning +of extreme value. I do not think its value can be exaggerated, because +it gives you the means of training the young in attention and accuracy, +which are the two things in which all mankind are more deficient than in +any other mental quality whatever. The whole of my life has been spent +in trying to give my proper attention to things and to be accurate, and +I have not succeeded as well as I could wish; and other people, I am +afraid, are not much more fortunate. You cannot begin this habit too +early, and I consider there is nothing of so great a value as the habit +of drawing, to secure those two desirable ends. + +Then we come to the subject-matter, whether scientific or aesthetic, of +education, and I should naturally have no question at all about teaching +the elements of physical science of the kind I have sketched, in a +practical manner; but among scientific topics, using the word scientific +in the broadest sense, I would also include the elements of the theory +of morals and of that of political and social life, which, strangely +enough, it never seems to occur to anybody to teach a child. I would +have the history of our own country, and of all the influences which +have been brought to bear upon it, with incidental geography, not as +a mere chronicle of reigns and battles, but as a chapter in the +development of the race, and the history of civilisation. + +Then with respect to aesthetic knowledge and discipline, we have happily +in the English language one of the most magnificent storehouses of +artistic beauty and of models of literary excellence which exists in +the world at the present time. I have said before, and I repeat it here, +that if a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out of +his Bible, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes,[81] and +Bishop Berkeley,[82] to mention only a few of our illustrious writers--I +say, if he cannot get it out of those writers he cannot get it out of +anything; and I would assuredly devote a very large portion of the time +of every English child to the careful study of the models of English +writing of such varied and wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is +still more important and still more neglected, the habit of using that +language with precision, with force, and with art. I fancy we are almost +the only nation in the world who seem to think that composition comes +by nature. The French attend to their own language, the Germans study +theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth their while. +Nor would I fail to include, in the course of study I am sketching, +translations of all the best works of antiquity, or of the modern world. +It is a very desirable thing to read Homer in Greek; but if you don't +happen to know Greek, the next best thing we can do is to read as good a +translation of it as we have recently been furnished with in prose.[83] +You won't get all you would get from the original, but you may get a +great deal; and to refuse to know this great deal because you cannot get +all, seems to be as sensible as for a hungry man to refuse bread because +he cannot get partridge. Finally, I would add instruction in either +music or painting, or, if the child should be so unhappy, as sometimes +happens, as to have no faculty for either of those, and no possibility +of doing anything in any artistic sense with them, then I would see what +could be done with literature alone; but I would provide, in the fullest +sense, for the development of the aesthetic side of the mind. In my +judgment, those are all the essentials of education for an English +child. With that outfit, such as it might be made in the time given +to education which is within the reach of nine-tenths of the +population--with that outfit, an Englishman, within the limits of +English life, is fitted to go anywhere, to occupy the highest positions, +to fill the highest offices of the State, and to become distinguished +in practical pursuits, in science, or in art. For, if he have the +opportunity to learn all those things, and have his mind disciplined +in the various directions the teaching of those topics would have +necessitated, then, assuredly, he will be able to pick up, on his road +through life, all the rest of the intellectual baggage he wants. + +If the educational time at our disposition were sufficient, there +are one or two things I would add to those I have just now called the +essentials; and perhaps you will be surprised to hear, though I hope you +will not, that I should add, not more science, but one, or, if possible, +two languages. The knowledge of some other language than one's own is, +in fact, of singular intellectual value. Many of the faults and mistakes +of the ancient philosophers are traceable to the fact that they knew +no language but their own, and were often led into confusing the symbol +with the thought which it embodied. I think it is Locke [84] who says +that one-half of the mistakes of philosophers have arisen from questions +about words; and one of the safest ways of delivering yourself from the +bondage of words is, to know how ideas look in words to which you are +not accustomed. That is one reason for the study of language; another +reason is, that it opens new fields in art and in science. Another is +the practical value of such knowledge; and yet another is this, that +if your languages are properly chosen, from the time of learning the +additional languages you will know your own language better than ever +you did. So, I say, if the time given to education permits, add Latin +and German. Latin, because it is the key to nearly one-half of English +and to all the Romance languages; and German, because it is the key to +almost all the remainder of English, and helps you to understand a +race from whom most of us have sprung, and who have a character and +a literature of a fateful force in the history of the world, such as +probably has been allotted to those of no other people, except the Jews, +the Greeks, and ourselves. Beyond these, the essential and the eminently +desirable elements of all education, let each man take up his special +line--the historian devote himself to his history, the man of science +to his science, the man of letters to his culture of that kind, and the +artist to his special pursuit. + + +Bacon has prefaced some of his works with no more than this: Franciscus +Bacon sic cogitavit;[85] let "sic cogitavi" be the epilogue to what I +have ventured to address to you to-night. + + + + +THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION [86] + + +The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of +the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode +at which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and +exact. There is no more difference, but there is just the same kind of +difference, between the mental operations of a man of science and those +of an ordinary person, as there is between the operations and methods of +a baker or of a butcher weighing out his goods in common scales, and the +operations of a chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis +by means of his balance and finely graduated weights. It is not that +the action of the scales in the one case, and the balance in the other, +differ in the principles of their construction or manner of working; but +the beam of one is set on an infinitely finer axis than the other, and +of course turns by the addition of a much smaller weight. + +You will understand this better, perhaps, if I give you some familiar +example. You have all heard it repeated, I dare say, that men of science +work by means of induction and deduction, and that by the help of these +operations, they, in a sort of sense, wring from Nature certain other +things, which are called natural laws, and causes, and that out of +these, by some cunning skill of their own, they build up hypotheses and +theories. And it is imagined by many, that the operations of the common +mind can be by no means compared with these processes, and that they +have to be acquired by a sort of special apprenticeship to the craft. +To hear all these large words, you would think that the mind of a man of +science must be constituted differently from that of his fellow men; but +if you will not be frightened by terms, you will discover that you are +quite wrong, and that all these terrible apparatus [87] are being used +by yourselves every day and every hour of your lives. + +There is a well-known incident in one of Moliere's plays,[88] where the +author makes the hero express unbounded delight on being told that he +had been talking prose during the whole of his life. In the same way, I +trust, that you will take comfort, and be delighted with yourselves, on +the discovery that you have been acting on the principles of inductive +and deductive philosophy during the same period. Probably there is not +one here who has not in the course of the day had occasion to set in +motion a complex train of reasoning, of the very same kind, though +differing of course in degree, as that which a scientific man goes +through in tracing the causes of natural phenomena. + +A very trivial circumstance will serve to exemplify this. Suppose you +go into a fruiterer's shop, wanting an apple,--you take up one, and, on +biting it, you find it is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard +and green. You take up another one, and that too is hard, green, and +sour. The shopman offers you a third; but, before biting it, you examine +it, and find that it is hard and green, and you immediately say that you +will not have it, as it must be sour, like those that you have already +tried. + +Nothing can be more simple than that, you think; but if you will take +the trouble to analyse and trace out into its logical elements what has +been done by the mind, you will be greatly surprised. In the first place +you have performed the operation of induction. You found that, in +two experiences, hardness and greenness in apples went together with +sourness. It was so in the first case, and it was confirmed by the +second. True, it is a very small basis, but still it is enough to make +an induction from; you generalise the facts, and you expect to find +sourness in apples where you get hardness and greenness. You found upon +that a general law that all hard and green apples are sour; and that, +so far as it goes, is a perfect induction. Well, having got your natural +law in this way, when you are offered another apple which you find is +hard and green, you say, "All hard and green apples are sour; this +apple is hard and green, therefore this apple is sour." That train of +reasoning is what logicians call a syllogism, and has all its various +parts and terms,--its major premiss, its minor premiss and its +conclusion. And, by the help of further reasoning, which, if drawn out, +would have to be exhibited in two or three other syllogisms, you arrive +at your final determination, "I will not have that apple." So that, you +see, you have, in the first place, established a law by induction, and +upon that you have founded a deduction, and reasoned out the special +particular case. Well now, suppose, having got your conclusion of the +law, that at some time afterwards, you are discussing the qualities +of apples with a friend: you will say to him, "It is a very curious +thing,--but I find that all hard and green apples are sour!" Your friend +says to you, "But how do you know that?" You at once reply, "Oh, because +I have tried them over and over again, and have always found them to be +so." Well, if we were talking science instead of common sense, we should +call that an experimental verification. And, if still opposed, you go +further, and say, "I have heard from the people in Somersetshire and +Devonshire, where a large number of apples are grown, that they have +observed the same thing. It is also found to be the case in Normandy, +and in North America. In short, I find it to be the universal experience +of mankind wherever attention has been directed to the subject." +Whereupon, your friend, unless he is a very unreasonable man, agrees +with you, and is convinced that you are quite right in the conclusion +you have drawn. He believes, although perhaps he does not know he +believes it, that the more extensive verifications are,--that the more +frequently experiments have been made, and results of the same kind +arrived at,--that the more varied the conditions under which the same +results are attained, the more certain is the ultimate conclusion, and +he disputes the question no further. He sees that the experiment has +been tried under all sorts of conditions, as to time, place, and people, +with the same result; and he says with you, therefore, that the law you +have laid down must be a good one, and he must believe it. + +In science we do the same thing;--the philosopher exercises precisely +the same faculties, though in a much more delicate manner. In scientific +inquiry it becomes a matter of duty to expose a supposed law to every +possible kind of verification, and to take care, moreover, that this is +done intentionally, and not left to a mere accident, as in the case of +the apples. And in science, as in common life, our confidence in a law +is in exact proportion to the absence of variation in the result of our +experimental verifications. For instance, if you let go your grasp of +an article you may have in your hand, it will immediately fall to +the ground. That is a very common verification of one of the best +established laws of nature--that of gravitation. The method by which men +of science establish the existence of that law is exactly the same as +that by which we have established the trivial proposition about +the sourness of hard and green apples. But we believe it in such an +extensive, thorough, and unhesitating manner because the universal +experience of mankind verifies it, and we can verify it ourselves at any +time; and that is the strongest possible foundation on which any natural +law can rest. + +So much, then, by way of proof that the method of establishing laws in +science is exactly the same as that pursued in common life. Let us now +turn to another matter (though really it is but another phase of the +same question), and that is, the method by which, from the relations of +certain phenomena, we prove that some stand in the position of causes +towards the others. + +I want to put the case clearly before you, and I will therefore show you +what I mean by another familiar example. I will suppose that one of you, +on coming down in the morning to the parlor of your house, finds that a +tea-pot and some spoons which had been left in the room on the previous +evening are gone,--the window is open, and you observe the mark of a +dirty hand on the window-frame, and perhaps, in addition to that, you +notice the impress of a hob-nailed shoe on the gravel outside. All these +phenomena have struck your attention instantly, and before two seconds +have passed you say, "Oh, somebody has broken open the window, entered +the room, and run off with the spoons and the tea-pot!" That speech is +out of your mouth in a moment. And you will probably add, "I know there +has; I am quite sure of it!" You mean to say exactly what you know; +but in reality you are giving expression to what is, in all essential +particulars, an hypothesis. You do not KNOW it at all; it is nothing but +an hypothesis rapidly framed in your own mind. And it is an hypothesis +founded on a long train of inductions and deductions. + +What are those inductions and deductions, and how have you got at this +hypothesis? You have observed in the first place, that the window +is open; but by a train of reasoning involving many inductions and +deductions, you have probably arrived long before at the general +law--and a very good one it is--that windows do not open of themselves; +and you therefore conclude that something has opened the window. A +second general law that you have arrived at in the same way is, that +tea-pots and spoons do not go out of a window spontaneously, and you are +satisfied that, as they are not now where you left them, they have been +removed. In the third place, you look at the marks on the windowsill, +and the shoe-marks outside, and you say that in all previous experience +the former kind of mark has never been produced by anything else but +the hand of a human being; and the same experience shows that no other +animal but man at present wears shoes with hob-nails in them such as +would produce the marks in the gravel. I do not know, even if we could +discover any of those "missing links" that are talked about, that they +would help us to any other conclusion! At any rate the law which states +our present experience is strong enough for my present purpose. You next +reach the conclusion that, as these kind [89] of marks have not been +left by any other animal than man, or are liable to be formed in any +other way than a man's hand and shoe, the marks in question have been +formed by a man in that way. You have, further, a general law, founded +on observation and experience, and that, too, is, I am sorry to say, a +very universal and unimpeachable one,--that some men are thieves; +and you assume at once from all these premisses--and that is what +constitutes your hypothesis--that the man who made the marks outside and +on the window-sill, opened the window, got into the room, and stole +your tea-pot and spoons. You have now arrived at a vera causa;--you +have assumed a cause which, it is plain, is competent to produce all the +phenomena you have observed. You can explain all these phenomena only by +the hypothesis of a thief. But that is a hypothetical conclusion, of the +justice of which you have no absolute proof at all; it is only rendered +highly probable by a series of inductive and deductive reasonings. + +I suppose your first action, assuming that you are a man of ordinary +common sense, and that you have established this hypothesis to your own +satisfaction, will very likely be to go off for the police, and set +them on the track of the burglar, with the view to the recovery of your +property. But just as you are starting with this object, some person +comes in, and on learning what you are about, says, "My good friend, +you are going on a great deal too fast. How do you know that the man who +really made the marks took the spoons? It might have been a monkey that +took them, and the man may have merely looked in afterwards." You would +probably reply, "Well, that is all very well, but you see it is contrary +to all experience of the way tea-pots and spoons are abstracted; so +that, at any rate, your hypothesis is less probable than mine." While +you are talking the thing over in this way, another friend arrives, one +of the good kind of people that I was talking of a little while ago. And +he might say, "Oh, my dear sir, you are certainly going on a great +deal too fast. You are most presumptuous. You admit that all these +occurrences took place when you were fast asleep, at a time when you +could not possibly have known anything about what was taking place. How +do you know that the laws of Nature are not suspended during the night? +It may be that there has been some kind of supernatural interference in +this case." In point of fact, he declares that your hypothesis is one +of which you cannot at all demonstrate the truth, and that you are by no +means sure that the laws of Nature are the same when you are asleep as +when you are awake. + +Well, now, you cannot at the moment answer that kind of reasoning. You +feel that your worthy friend has you somewhat at a disadvantage. You +will feel perfectly convinced in your own mind, however, that you are +quite right, and you say to him, "My good friend, I can only be guided +by the natural probabilities of the case, and if you will be kind enough +to stand aside and permit me to pass, I will go and fetch the police." +Well, we will suppose that your journey is successful, and that by good +luck you meet with a policeman; that eventually the burglar is found +with your property on his person, and the marks correspond to his hand +and to his boots. Probably any jury would consider those facts a very +good experimental verification of your hypothesis, touching the cause +of the abnormal phenomena observed in your parlor, and would act +accordingly. + +Now, in this supposititious case, I have taken phenomena of a very +common kind, in order that you might see what are the different steps in +an ordinary process of reasoning, if you will only take the trouble to +analyse it carefully. All the operations I have described, you will +see, are involved in the mind of any man of sense in leading him to +a conclusion as to the course he should take in order to make good a +robbery and punish the offender. I say that you are led, in that case, +to your conclusion by exactly the same train of reasoning as that which +a man of science pursues when he is endeavouring to discover the origin +and laws of the most occult phenomena. The process is, and always must +be, the same; and precisely the same mode of reasoning was employed by +Newton [90] and Laplace [91] in their endeavours to discover and define +the causes of the movements of the heavenly bodies, as you, with your +own common sense, would employ to detect a burglar. The only difference +is, that the nature of the inquiry being more abstruse, every step has +to be most carefully watched, so that there may not be a single crack +or flaw in your hypothesis. A flaw or crack in many of the hypotheses +of daily life may be of little or no moment as affecting the general +correctness of the conclusions at which we may arrive; but, in a +scientific inquiry, a fallacy, great or small, is always of importance, +and is sure to be in the long run constantly productive of mischievous +if not fatal results. + +Do not allow yourselves to be misled by the common notion that an +hypothesis is untrustworthy simply because it is an hypothesis. It is +often urged, in respect to some scientific conclusion, that, after +all, it is only an hypothesis. But what more have we to guide us in +nine-tenths of the most important affairs of daily life than hypotheses, +and often very ill-based ones? So that in science, where the evidence of +an hypothesis is subjected to the most rigid examination, we may rightly +pursue the same course. You may have hypotheses, and hypotheses. A man +may say, if he likes, that the moon is made of green cheese: that is an +hypothesis. But another man, who has devoted a great deal of time and +attention to the subject, and availed himself of the most powerful +telescopes and the results of the observations of others, declares that +in his opinion it is probably composed of materials very similar to +those of which our own earth is made up: and that is also only an +hypothesis. But I need not tell you that there is an enormous difference +in the value of the two hypotheses. That one which is based on sound +scientific knowledge is sure to have a corresponding value; and that +which is a mere hasty random guess is likely to have but little value. +Every great step in our progress in discovering causes has been made +in exactly the same way as that which I have detailed to you. A person +observing the occurrence of certain facts and phenomena asks, naturally +enough, what process, what kind of operation known to occur in Nature +applied to the particular case, will unravel and explain the mystery? +Hence you have the scientific hypothesis; and its value will be +proportionate to the care and completeness with which its basis had been +tested and verified. It is in these matters as in the commonest affairs +of practical life: the guess of the fool will be folly, while the guess +of the wise man will contain wisdom. In all cases, you see that the +value of the result depends on the patience and faithfulness with +which the investigator applies to his hypothesis every possible kind of +verification. + + + + +ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE [92] + + +In order to make the title of this discourse generally intelligible, I +have translated the term "Protoplasm," which is the scientific name of +the substance of which I am about to speak, by the words "the physical +basis of life." I suppose that, to many, the idea that there is such a +thing as a physical basis, or matter, of life may be novel--so widely +spread is the conception of life as a something which works through +matter, but is independent of it; and even those who are aware that +matter and life are inseparably connected, may not be prepared for +the conclusion plainly suggested by the phrase, "THE physical basis or +matter of life," that there is some one kind of matter which is common +to all living beings, and that their endless diversities are bound +together by a physical, as well as an ideal, unity. In fact, when first +apprehended, such a doctrine as this appears almost shocking to common +sense. + +What, truly, can seem to be more obviously different from one another, +in faculty, in form, and in substance, than the various kinds of +living beings? What community of faculty can there be between the +bright-coloured lichen, which so nearly resembles a mere mineral +incrustation of the bare rock on which it grows, and the painter, to +whom it is instinct with beauty, or the botanist, whom it feeds with +knowledge? + +Again, think of the microscopic fungus--a mere infinitesimal ovoid +particle, which finds space and duration enough to multiply into +countless millions in the body of a living fly; and then of the wealth +of foliage, the luxuriance of flower and fruit, which lies between this +bald sketch of a plant and the giant pine of California, towering to the +dimensions of a cathedral spire, or the Indian fig, which covers acres +with its profound shadow, and endures while nations and empires come and +go around its vast circumference. Or, turning to the other half of the +world of life, picture to yourselves the great Finner whale,[93] hugest +of beasts that live, or have lived, disporting his eighty or ninety feet +of bone, muscle and blubber, with easy roll, among waves in which the +stoutest ship that ever left dockyard would flounder hopelessly; and +contrast him with the invisible animalcules--mere gelatinous specks, +multitudes of which could, in fact, dance upon the point of a needle +with the same ease as the angels of the Schoolmen could, in imagination. +With these images before your minds, you may well ask, what community +of form, or structure, is there between the animalcule and the whale; +or between the fungus and the fig-tree? And, a fortiori,[94] between all +four? + +Finally, if we regard substance, or material composition, what hidden +bond can connect the flower which a girl wears in her hair and the blood +which courses through her youthful veins; or, what is there in common +between the dense and resisting mass of the oak, or the strong fabric +of the tortoise, and those broad disks of glassy jelly which may be seen +pulsating through the waters of a calm sea, but which drain away to mere +films in the hand which raises them out of their element? + +Such objections as these must, I think, arise in the mind of every +one who ponders, for the first time, upon the conception of a single +physical basis of life underlying all the diversities of vital +existence; but I propose to demonstrate to you that, notwithstanding +these apparent difficulties, a threefold unity--namely, a unity of +power or faculty, a unity of form, and a unity of substantial +composition--does pervade the whole living world. + + +No very abstruse argumentation is needed, in the first place to prove +that the powers, or faculties, of all kinds of living matter, diverse as +they may be in degree, are substantially similar in kind. + +Goethe has condensed a survey of all powers of mankind into the +well-known epigram:--[95] + +"Warum treibt sich das Volk so und schreit? Es will sich ernahren Kinder +zeugen, und die nahren so gut es vermag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . +Weiter bringt es kein Mensch, stell' er sich wie er auch will." + + +In physiological language this means, that all the multifarious and +complicated activities of man are comprehensible under three categories. +Either they are immediately directed towards the maintenance and +development of the body, or they effect transitory changes in the +relative positions of parts of the body, or they tend towards the +continuance of the species. Even those manifestations of intellect, of +feeling, and of will, which we rightly name the higher faculties, are +not excluded from this classification, inasmuch as to every one but +the subject of them, they are known only as transitory changes in the +relative positions of parts of the body. Speech, gesture, and every +other form of human action are, in the long run, resolvable into +muscular contraction, and muscular contraction is but a transitory +change in the relative positions of the parts of a muscle. But the +scheme which is large enough to embrace the activities of the highest +form of life, covers all those of the lower creatures. The lowest plant, +or animalcule, feeds, grows, and reproduces its kind. In addition, all +animals manifest those transitory changes of form which we class under +irritability and contractility; and, it is more than probable, that when +the vegetable world is thoroughly explored, we shall find all plants in +possession of the same powers, at one time or other of their existence. + +I am not now alluding to such phaenomena, at once rare and conspicuous, +as those exhibited by the leaflets of the sensitive plants, or the +stamens of the barberry, but to much more widely spread, and at the same +time, more subtle and hidden, manifestations of vegetable contractility. +You are doubtless aware that the common nettle owes its stinging +property to the innumerable stiff and needle-like, though exquisitely +delicate, hairs which cover its surface. Each stinging-needle tapers +from a broad base to a slender summit, which, though rounded at the end, +is of such microscopic fineness that it readily penetrates, and breaks +off in, the skin. The whole hair consists of a very delicate outer case +of wood, closely applied to the inner surface of which is a layer of +semi-fluid matter, full of innumerable granules of extreme minuteness. +This semi-fluid lining is protoplasm, which thus constitutes a kind of +bag, full of a limpid liquid, and roughly corresponding in form with +the interior of the hair which it fills. When viewed with a sufficiently +high magnifying power, the protoplasmic layer of the nettle hair is seen +to be in a condition of unceasing activity. Local contractions of the +whole thickness of its substance pass slowly and gradually from point to +point, and give rise to the appearance of progressive waves, just as the +bending of successive stalks of corn by a breeze produces the apparent +billows of a cornfield. + +But, in addition to these movements, and independently of them, the +granules are driven, in relatively rapid streams, through channels in +the protoplasm which seem to have a considerable amount of persistence. +Most commonly, the currents in adjacent parts of the protoplasm take +similar directions; and, thus, there is a general stream up one side of +the hair and down the other. But this does not prevent the existence of +partial currents which take different routes; and sometimes trains of +granules may be seen coursing swiftly in opposite directions within +a twenty-thousandth of an inch of one another; while, occasionally, +opposite streams come into direct collision, and, after a longer or +shorter struggle, one predominates. The cause of these currents seems to +lie in contractions of the protoplasm which bounds the channels in which +they flow, but which are so minute that the best microscopes show only +their effects, and not themselves. + +The spectacle afforded by the wonderful energies prisoned within the +compass of the microscopic hair of a plant, which we commonly regard +as a merely passive organism, is not easily forgotten by one who has +watched its display, continued hour after hour, without pause or sign +of weakening. The possible complexity of many other organic forms, +seemingly as simple as the protoplasm of the nettle, dawns upon one; +and the comparison of such a protoplasm to a body with an internal +circulation, which has been put forward by an eminent physiologist, +loses much of its startling character. Currents similar to those of +the hairs of the nettle have been observed in a great multitude of +very different plants, and weighty authorities have suggested that +they probably occur, in more or less perfection, in all young vegetable +cells. If such be the case, the wonderful noonday silence of a tropical +forest is, after all, due only to the dulness of our hearing; and could +our ears catch the murmur of these tiny Maelstroms, [96] as they whirl +in the innumerable myriads of living cells which constitute each tree, +we should be stunned, as with the roar of a great city. + +Among the lower plants, it is the rule rather than the exception, that +contractility should be still more openly manifested at some periods of +their existence. The protoplasm of Algae and Fungi becomes, under many +circumstances, partially, or completely, freed from its woody case, +and exhibits movements of its whole mass, or is propelled by the +contractility of one, or more, hair-like prolongations of its body, +which are called vibratile cilia. And, so far as the conditions of the +manifestation of the phaenomena of contractility have yet been studied, +they are the same for the plant as for the animal. Heat and electric +shocks influence both, and in the same way, though it may be in +different degrees. It is by no means my intention to suggest that there +is no difference in faculty between the lowest plant and the highest, or +between plants and animals. But the difference between the powers of the +lowest plant, or animal, and those of the highest, is one of degree, +not of kind, and depends, as Milne-Edwards [97] long ago so well pointed +out, upon the extent to which the principle of the division of labour is +carried out in the living economy. In the lowest organism all parts +are competent to perform all functions, and one and the same portion of +protoplasm may successfully take on the function of feeding, moving, or +reproducing apparatus. In the highest, on the contrary, a great number +of parts combine to perform each function, each part doing its allotted +share of the work with great accuracy and efficiency, but being useless +for any other purpose. + +On the other hand, notwithstanding all the fundamental resemblances +which exist between the powers of the protoplasm in plants and in +animals, they present a striking difference (to which I shall advert +more at length presently), in the fact that plants can manufacture fresh +protoplasm out of mineral compounds, whereas animals are obliged to +procure it ready made, and hence, in the long run, depend upon plants. +Upon what condition this difference in the powers of the two great +divisions of the world of life depends, nothing is at present known. + +With such qualifications as arises [98] out of the last-mentioned +fact, it may be truly said that the acts of all living things are +fundamentally one. Is any such unity predicable of their forms? Let us +seek in easily verified facts for a reply to this question. If a drop +of blood be drawn by pricking one's finger, and viewed with proper +precautions, and under a sufficiently high microscopic power, there will +be seen, among the innumerable multitude of little, circular, discoidal +bodies, or corpuscles, which float in it and give it its colour, a +comparatively small number of colourless corpuscles, of somewhat larger +size and very irregular shape. If the drop of blood be kept at the +temperature of the body, these colourless corpuscles will be seen to +exhibit a marvellous activity, changing their forms with great rapidity, +drawing in and thrusting out prolongations of their substance, and +creeping about as if they were independent organisms. + +The substance which is thus active is a mass of protoplasm, and its +activity differs in detail, rather than in principle, from that of the +protoplasm of the nettle. Under sundry circumstances the corpuscle dies +and becomes distended into a round mass, in the midst of which is seen +a smaller spherical body, which existed, but was more or less hidden, +in the living corpuscle, and is called its nucleus. Corpuscles of +essentially similar structure are to be found in the skin, in the lining +of the mouth, and scattered through the whole framework of the body. +Nay, more; in the earliest condition of the human organism, in that +state in which it has but just become distinguishable from the egg in +which it arises, it is nothing but an aggregation of such corpuscles, +and every organ of the body was, once, no more than such an aggregation. + +Thus a nucleated mass of protoplasm turns out to be what may be termed +the structural unit of the human body. As a matter of fact, the body, in +its earliest state, is a mere multiple of such units; and in its perfect +condition, it is a multiple of such units, variously modified. + +But does the formula which expresses the essential structural character +of the highest animal cover all the rest, as the statement of its powers +and faculties covered that of all others? Very nearly. Beast and +fowl, reptile and fish, mollusk, worm, and polype, are all composed of +structural units of the same character, namely, masses of protoplasm +with a nucleus. There are sundry very low animals, each of which, +structurally, is a mere colourless blood-corpuscle, leading an +independent life. But, at the very bottom of the animal scale, even +this simplicity becomes simplified, and all the phaenomena of life are +manifested by a particle of protoplasm without a nucleus. Nor are such +organisms insignificant by reason of their want of complexity. It is a +fair question whether the protoplasm of those simplest forms of life, +which people an immense extent of the bottom of the sea, would not +outweigh that of all the higher living beings which inhabit the land put +together. And in ancient times, no less than at the present day, such +living beings as these have been the greatest of rock builders. + +What has been said of the animal world is no less true of plants. +Imbedded in the protoplasm at the broad, or attached, end of the nettle +hair, there lies a spheroidal nucleus. Careful examination further +proves that the whole substance of the nettle is made up of a repetition +of such masses of nucleated protoplasm, each contained in a wooden case, +which is modified in form, sometimes into a woody fibre, sometimes into +a duct or spiral vessel, sometimes into a pollen grain, or an ovule. +Traced back to its earliest state, the nettle arises as the man does, in +a particle of nucleated protoplasm. And in the lowest plants, as in +the lowest animals, a single mass of such protoplasm may constitute the +whole plant, or the protoplasm may exist without a nucleus. + +Under these circumstances it may well be asked, how is one mass of +non-nucleated protoplasm to be distinguished from another? why call one +"plant" and the other "animal"? + +The only reply is that, so far as form is concerned, plants and animals +are not separable, and that, in many cases, it is a mere matter of +convention whether we call a given organism an animal or a plant. There +is a living body called Aethalium septicum, which appears upon decaying +vegetable substances, and, in one of its forms, is common upon the +surfaces of tan-pits. In this condition it is, to all intents and +purposes, a fungus, and formerly was always regarded as such; but the +remarkable investigations of De Bary [99] have shown that, in another +condition, the Aethalium is an actively locomotive creature, and takes +in solid matters, upon which, apparently, it feeds, thus exhibiting the +most characteristic feature of animality. Is this a plant; or is it an +animal? Is it both; or is it neither? Some decide in favour of the last +supposition, and establish an intermediate kingdom, a sort of biological +No Man's Land [100] for all these questionable forms. But, as it is +admittedly impossible to draw any distinct boundary line between this +no man's land and the vegetable world on the one hand, or the animal, +on the other, it appears to me that this proceeding merely doubles the +difficulty which, before, was single. + +Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is +the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains +clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick +or sun-dried clod. + +Thus it becomes clear that all living powers are cognate, and that all +living forms are fundamentally of one character. The researches of +the chemist have revealed a no less striking uniformity of material +composition in living matter. + +In perfect strictness, it is true that chemical investigation can tell +us little or nothing, directly, of the composition of living matter, +inasmuch as such matter must needs die in the act of analysis,--and upon +this very obvious ground, objections, which I confess seem to me to be +somewhat frivolous, have been raised to the drawing of any conclusions +whatever respecting the composition of actually living matter, from +that of the dead matter of life, which alone is accessible to us. But +objectors of this class do not seem to reflect that it is also, in +strictness, true that we know nothing about the composition of any body +whatever, as it is. The statement that a crystal of calc-spar +consists of carbonate of lime, is quite true, if we only mean that, +by appropriate processes, it may be resolved into carbonic acid and +quicklime. If you pass the same carbonic acid over the very quicklime +thus obtained, you will obtain carbonate of lime again; but it will +not be calc-spar, nor anything like it. Can it, therefore, be said that +chemical analysis teaches nothing about the chemical composition of +calc-spar? Such a statement would be absurd; but it is hardly more so +than the talk one occasionally hears about the uselessness of applying +the results of chemical analysis to the living bodies which have yielded +them. + +One fact, at any rate, is out of reach of such refinements, and this is, +that all the forms of protoplasm which have yet been examined contain +the four elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, in very +complex union, and that they behave similarly towards several reagents. +To this complex combination, the nature of which has never been +determined with exactness, the name of Protein has been applied. And +if we use this term with such caution as may properly arise out of our +comparative ignorance of the things for which it stands, it may be +truly said, that all protoplasm is proteinaceous, or, as the white, or +albumen, of an egg is one of the commonest examples of a nearly pure +proteine matter, we may say that all living matter is more or less +albuminoid. + +Perhaps it would not yet be safe to say that all forms of protoplasm are +affected by the direct action of electric shocks; and yet the number of +cases in which the contraction of protoplasm is shown to be affected by +this agency increases every day. + +Nor can it be affirmed with perfect confidence, that all forms of +protoplasm are liable to undergo that peculiar coagulation at a +temperature of 40-50 degrees centigrade, which has been called +"heat-stiffening," though Kuhne's [101] beautiful researches have proved +this occurrence to take place in so many and such diverse living beings, +that it is hardly rash to expect that the law holds good for all. + + +Enough has, perhaps, been said to prove the existence of a general +uniformity in the character of the protoplasm, or physical basis, of +life, in whatever group of living beings it may be studied. But it will +be understood that this general uniformity by no means excludes any +amount of special modifications of the fundamental substance. The +mineral, carbonate of lime, assumes an immense diversity of characters, +though no one doubts that, under all these Protean changes, it is one +and the same thing. + +And now, what is the ultimate fate, and what the origin, of the matter +of life? + +Is it, as some of the older naturalists supposed, diffused throughout +the universe in molecules, which are indestructible and unchangeable +in themselves; but, in endless transmigration, unite in innumerable +permutations, into the diversified forms of life we know? Or, is the +matter of life composed of ordinary matter, differing from it only in +the manner in which its atoms are aggregated? Is it built up of ordinary +matter, and again resolved into ordinary matter when its work is done? + +Modern science does not hesitate a moment between these alternatives. +Physiology writes over the portals of life-- + +"Debemur morti nos nostraque,"[102] + +with a profounder meaning than the Roman poet attached to that +melancholy line. Under whatever disguise it takes refuge, whether fungus +or oak, worm or man, the living protoplasm not only ultimately dies and +is resolved into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is always +dying, and, strange as the paradox may sound, could not live unless it +died. + +In the wonderful story of the Peau de Chagrin,[103] the hero becomes +possessed of a magical wild ass' skin, which yields him the means of +gratifying all his wishes. But its surface represents the duration of +the proprietor's life; and for every satisfied desire the skin shrinks +in proportion to the intensity of fruition, until at length life and +the last handbreadth of the peau de chagrin, disappear with the +gratification of a last wish. + +Balzac's [104] studies had led him over a wide range of thought and +speculation, and his shadowing forth of physiological truth in this +strange story may have been intentional. At any rate, the matter of life +is a veritable peau de chagrin, and for every vital act it is somewhat +the smaller. All work implies waste, and the work of life results, +directly or indirectly, in the waste of protoplasm. + +Every word uttered by a speaker costs him some physical loss; and, +in the strictest sense, he burns that others may have light--so much +eloquence, so much of his body resolved into carbonic acid, water, and +urea. It is clear that this process of expenditure cannot go on for +ever. But, happily, the protoplasmic peau de chagrin differs from +Balzac's in its capacity of being repaired, and brought back to its full +size, after every exertion. + +For example, this present lecture, whatever its intellectual worth +to you, has a certain physical value to me, which is, conceivably, +expressible by the number of grains of protoplasm and other bodily +substance wasted in maintaining my vital processes during its delivery. +My peau de chagrin will be distinctly smaller at the end of the +discourse than it was at the beginning. By and by, I shall probably have +recourse to the substance commonly called mutton, for the purpose of +stretching it back to its original size. Now this mutton was once the +living protoplasm, more or less modified, of another animal--a sheep. As +I shall eat it, it is the same matter altered, not only by death, but by +exposure to sundry artificial operations in the process of cooking. + +But these changes, whatever be their extent, have not rendered it +incompetent to resume its old functions as matter of life. A singular +inward laboratory, which I possess, will dissolve a certain portion of +the modified protoplasm; the solution so formed will pass into my +veins; and the subtle influences to which it will then be subjected will +convert the dead protoplasm into living protoplasm, and transubstantiate +sheep into man. + +Nor is this all. If digestion were a thing to be trifled with, I might +sup upon lobster, and the matter of life of the crustacean would undergo +the same wonderful metamorphosis into humanity. And were I to return to +my own place by sea, and undergo shipwreck, the crustacean might, and +probably would, return the compliment, and demonstrate our common nature +by turning my protoplasm into living lobster. Or, if nothing better were +to be had, I might supply my wants with mere bread, and I should find +the protoplasm of the wheat-plant to be convertible into man, with no +more trouble than that of the sheep, and with far less, I fancy, than +that of the lobster. + +Hence it appears to be a matter of no great moment what animal, or what +plant, I lay under contribution for protoplasm, and the fact speaks +volumes for the general identity of that substance in all living beings. +I share this catholicity of assimilation with other animals, all of +which, so far as we know, could thrive equally well on the protoplasm of +any of their fellows, or of any plant; but here the assimilative powers +of the animal world cease. A solution of smelling-salts in water, with +an infinitesimal proportion of some other saline matters, contains all +the elementary bodies which enter into the composition of protoplasm; +but, as I need hardly say, a hogshead of that fluid would not keep a +hungry man from starving, nor would it save any animal whatever from a +like fate. An animal cannot make protoplasm, but must take it ready-made +from some other animal, or some plant--the animal's highest feat of +constructive chemistry being to convert dead protoplasm into that living +matter of life which is appropriate to itself. + +Therefore, in seeking for the origin of protoplasm, we must eventually +turn to the vegetable world. A fluid containing carbonic acid, water, +and nitrogenous salts, which offers such a Barmecide feast [105] to the +animal, is a table richly spread to multitudes of plants; and, with a +due supply of only such materials, many a plant will not only maintain +itself in vigour, but grow and multiply until it has increased a +million-fold, or a million million-fold, the quantity of protoplasm +which it originally possessed; in this way building up the matter of +life, to an indefinite extent, from the common matter of the universe. + +Thus, the animal can only raise the complex substance of dead protoplasm +to the higher power, as one may say, of living protoplasm; while the +plant can raise the less complex substances--carbonic acid, water, and +nitrogenous salts--to the same stage of living protoplasm, if not to the +same level. But the plant also has its limitations. Some of the fungi, +for example, appear to need higher compounds to start with; and no known +plant can live upon the uncompounded elements of protoplasm. A plant +supplied with pure carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, phosphorus, +sulphur, and the like, would as infallibly die as the animal in his bath +of smelling-salts, though it would be surrounded by all the constituents +of protoplasm. Nor, indeed, need the process of simplification of +vegetable food be carried so far as this, in order to arrive at the +limit of the plant's thaumaturgy. Let water, carbonic acid, and all the +other needful constituents be supplied except nitrogenous salts, and an +ordinary plant will still be unable to manufacture protoplasm. + +Thus the matter of life, so far as we know it (and we have no right to +speculate on any other), breaks up, in consequence of that continual +death which is the condition of its manifesting vitality, into carbonic +acid, water, and nitrogenous compounds, which certainly possess no +properties but those of ordinary matter. And out of these same forms of +ordinary matter, and from none which are simpler, the vegetable world +builds up all the protoplasm which keeps the animal world a-going. +Plants are the accumulators of the power which animals distribute and +disperse. + +But it will be observed, that the existence of the matter of life +depends on the pre-existence of certain compounds; namely, carbonic +acid, water, and certain nitrogenous bodies. Withdraw any one of these +three from the world, and all vital phaenomena come to an end. They are +as necessary to the protoplasm of the plant, as the protoplasm of the +plant is to that of the animal. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen +are all lifeless bodies. Of these, carbon and oxygen unite in certain +proportions and under certain conditions, to give rise to carbonic acid; +hydrogen and oxygen produce water; nitrogen and other elements give rise +to nitrogenous salts. These new compounds, like the elementary bodies +of which they are composed, are lifeless. But when they are brought +together, under certain conditions, they give rise to the still more +complex body, protoplasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the phaenomena of +life. + +I see no break in this series of steps in molecular complication, and I +am unable to understand why the language which is applicable to any one +term of the series may not be used to any of the others. We think fit to +call different kinds of matter carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, +and to speak of the various powers and activities of these substances as +the properties of the matter of which they are composed. + +When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in a certain proportion, and an +electric spark is passed through them, they disappear, and a quantity +of water, equal in weight to the sum of their weights, appears in their +place. There is not the slightest parity between the passive and active +powers of the water and those of the oxygen and hydrogen which +have given rise to it. At 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and far below that +temperature, oxygen and hydrogen are elastic gaseous bodies, whose +particles tend to rush away from one another with great force. Water, at +the same temperature, is a strong though brittle solid whose particles +tend to cohere into definite geometrical shapes, and sometimes build up +frosty imitations of the most complex forms of vegetable foliage. + +Nevertheless we call these, and many other strange phaenomena, the +properties of the water, and we do not hesitate to believe that, in +some way or another, they result from the properties of the component +elements of the water. We do not assume that a something called +"aquosity" entered into and took possession of the oxidated hydrogen as +soon as it was formed, and then guided the aqueous particles to their +places in the facets of the crystal, or amongst the leaflets of the +hoar-frost. On the contrary, we live in the hope and in the faith that, +by the advance of molecular physics, we shall by and by be able to see +our way as clearly from the constituents of water to the properties of +water, as we are now able to deduce the operations of a watch from the +form of its parts and the manner in which they are put together. + +Is the case in any way changed when carbonic acid, water, and +nitrogenous salts disappear, and in their place, under the influence of +pre-existing living protoplasm, an equivalent weight of the matter of +life makes its appearance? + +It is true that there is no sort of parity between the properties of the +components and the properties of the resultant, but neither was there in +the case of the water. It is also true that what I have spoken of as +the influence of pre-existing living matter is something quite +unintelligible; but does anybody quite comprehend the modus operandi +[106] of an electric spark, which traverses a mixture of oxygen and +hydrogen? + +What justification is there, then, for the assumption of the existence +in the living matter of a something which has no representative, or +correlative, in the not living matter which gave rise to it? What better +philosophical status has "vitality" than "aquosity"? And why should +"vitality" hope for a better fate than the other "itys" which have +disappeared since Martinus Scriblerus [107] accounted for the operation +of the meat-jack [108] by its inherent "meat-roasting quality," and +scorned the "materialism" of those who explained the turning of the spit +by a certain mechanism worked by the draught of the chimney. + +If scientific language is to possess a definite and constant +signification whenever it is employed, it seems to me that we are +logically bound to apply to the protoplasm, or physical basis of life, +the same conceptions as those which are held to be legitimate elsewhere. +If the phaenomena exhibited by water are its properties, so are those +presented by protoplasm, living or dead, its properties. + +If the properties of water may be properly said to result from the +nature and disposition of its component molecules, I can find no +intelligible ground for refusing to say that the properties of +protoplasm result from the nature and disposition of its molecules. + +But I bid you beware that, in accepting these conclusions, you are +placing your feet on the first rung of a ladder which, in most people's +estimation, is the reverse of Jacob's, and leads to the antipodes of +heaven. It may seem a small thing to admit that the dull vital actions +of a fungus, or a foraminifer, are the properties of their protoplasm, +and are the direct results of the nature of the matter of which they +are composed. But if, as I have endeavoured to prove to you, their +protoplasm is essentially identical with, and most readily converted +into, that of any animal, I can discover no logical halting-place +between the admission that such is the case, and the further concession +that all vital action may, with equal propriety, be said to be the +result of the molecular forces of the protoplasm which displays it. And +if so, it must be true, in the same sense and to the same extent, that +the thoughts to which I am now giving utterance, and your thoughts +regarding them, are the expression of molecular changes in that matter +of life which is the source of our other vital phaenomena.[109] + + + + +ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS [110] + + +The marine productions which are commonly known by the names of "Corals" +and "Corallines," were thought by the ancients to be sea-weeds, which +had the singular property of becoming hard and solid, when they were +fished up from their native depths and came into contact with the air. + + +"Sic et curalium, quo primum contigit auras Tempore durescit: mollis +fuit herba sub undis,"[111] + + +says Ovid (Metam. xv); and it was not until the seventeenth century that +Boccone [112] was emboldened, by personal experience of the facts, to +declare that the holders of this belief were no better than "idiots," +who had been misled by the softness of the outer coat of the living red +coral to imagine that it was soft all through. + +Messer Boccone's strong epithet is probably undeserved, as the notion he +controverts, in all likelihood, arose merely from the misinterpretation +of the strictly true statement which any coral fisherman would make to +a curious inquirer; namely, that the outside coat of the red coral is +quite soft when it is taken out of the sea. At any rate, he did good +service by eliminating this much error from the current notions about +coral. But the belief that corals are plants remained, not only in the +popular, but in the scientific mind; and it received what appeared to be +a striking confirmation from the researches of Marsigli [113] in 1706. +For this naturalist, having the opportunity of observing freshly-taken +red coral, saw that its branches were beset with what looked like +delicate and beautiful flowers each having eight petals. It was true +that these "flowers" could protrude and retract themselves, but their +motions were hardly more extensive, or more varied, than those of the +leaves of the sensitive plant; and therefore they could not be held to +militate against the conclusion so strongly suggested by their form and +their grouping upon the branches of a tree-like structure. + +Twenty years later, a pupil of Marsigli, the young Marseilles physician, +Peyssonel, conceived the desire to study these singular sea-plants, and +was sent by the French Government on a mission to the Mediterranean for +that purpose. The pupil undertook the investigation full of confidence +in the ideas of his master, but being able to see and think for himself, +he soon discovered that those ideas by no means altogether corresponded +with reality. In an essay entitled "Traite du Corail," which was +communicated to the French Academy of Science, but which has never been +published, Peyssonel writes:-- + +"Je fis fleurir le corail dans des vases pleins d'eau de mer, et +j'observai que ce que nous croyons etre la fleur de cette pretendue +plante n'etait au vrai, qu'un insecte semblable a une petite Ortie ou +Poulpe. J'avais le plaisir de voir remuer les pattes, ou pieds, de cette +Ortie, et ayant mis le vase plein d'eau ou le corail etait a une douce +chaleur aupres du feu, tous les petits insectes s'epanouirent.--L'Ortie +sortie etend les pieds, et forme ce que M. de Marsigli et moi avions +pris pour les petales de la fleur. Le calice de cette pretendue fleur +est le corps meme de l'animal avance et sorti hors de la cellule."*[114] + + * This extract from Peyssonel's manuscript is given by M. + Lacaze Duthiers in his valuable Histoire Naturelle du Corail + (1866). + +The comparison of the flowers of the coral to a "petite ortie," or +"little nettle," is perfectly just, but needs explanation. "Ortie de +mer," or "sea-nettle," is, in fact, the French appellation for our +"sea-anemone," a creature with which everybody, since the great aquarium +mania, must have become familiar, even to the limits of boredom. In +1710, the great naturalist, Reaumur,[115] had written a memoir for the +express purpose of demonstrating that these "orties" are animals; and +with this important paper Peyssonel must necessarily have been familiar. +Therefore, when he declared the "flowers" of the red coral to be little +"orties," it was the same thing as saying that they were animals of the +same general nature as sea-anemones. But to Peyssonel's contemporaries +this was an extremely startling announcement. It was hard to imagine the +existence of such a thing as an association of animals into a structure +with stem and branches altogether like a plant, and fixed to the soil +as a plant is fixed; and the naturalists of that day preferred not to +imagine it. Even Reaumur could not bring himself to accept the notion, +and France being blessed with Academicians, whose great function (as the +late Bishop Wilson [116] and an eminent modern writer [117] have so well +shown) is to cause sweetness and light to prevail, and to prevent such +unmannerly fellows as Peyssonel from blurting out unedifying truths, +they suppressed him; and, as aforesaid, his great work remained in +manuscript, and may at this day be consulted by the curious in that +state, in the Bibliotheque du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Peyssonel, +who evidently was a person of savage and untameable disposition, so far +from appreciating the kindness of the Academicians in giving him time to +reflect upon the unreasonableness, not to say rudeness, of making public +statements in opposition to the views of some of the most distinguished +of their body, seems bitterly to have resented the treatment he met +with. For he sent all further communications to the Royal Society of +London, which never had, and it is to be hoped never will have, +anything of an academic constitution; and finally he took himself off to +Guadaloupe, and became lost to science altogether. + +Fifteen or sixteen years after the date of Peyssonel's suppressed paper, +the Abbe Trembley [118] published his wonderful researches upon the +fresh-water Hydra. Bernard de Jussieu [119] and Guettard [120] followed +them up by like inquiries upon the marine sea-anemones and corallines; +Reaumur, convinced against his will of the entire justice of Peyssonel's +views, adopted them, and made him a half-and-half apology in the preface +to the next published volume of the "Memoires pour servir l'Histoire des +Insectes;" and, from this time forth, Peyssonel's doctrine that +corals are the work of animal organisms has been part of the body of +established scientific truth. + +Peyssonel, in the extract from his memoir already cited, compares the +flower-like animal of the coral to a "poulpe," which is the French +form of the name "polypus,"--"the many-footed,"--which the ancient +naturalists gave to the soft-bodied cuttlefishes, which, like the coral +animal, have eight arms, or tentacles, disposed around a central mouth. +Reaumur, admitting the analogy indicated by Peyssonel, gave the name +of polypes, not only to the sea-anemone, the coral animal, and the +fresh-water Hydra, but to what are now known as the Polyzoa, and he +termed the skeleton which they fabricate a "polypier," or "polypidom." + +The progress of discovery, since Reaumur's time, has made us very +completely acquainted with the structure and habits of all these +polypes. We know that, among the sea-anemones and coral-forming animals, +each poylpe has a mouth leading to a stomach, which is open at its inner +end, and thus communicates freely with the general cavity of the body; +that the tentacles placed round the mouth are hollow, and that they +perform the part of arms in seizing and capturing prey. It is known that +many of these creatures are capable of being multiplied by artificial +division, the divided halves growing, after a time, into complete and +separate animals; and that many are able to perform a very similar +process naturally, in such a manner that one polype may, by repeated +incomplete divisions, give rise to a sort of sheet, or turf, formed by +innumerable connected, and yet independent, descendants. Or, what is +still more common, a polype may throw out buds, which are converted into +polypes, or branches bearing polypes, until a tree-like mass, sometimes +of very considerable size, is formed. + +This is what happens in the case of the red coral of commerce. A minute +polype, fixed to the rocky bottom of the deep sea, grows up into a +branched trunk. The end of every branch and twig is terminated by +a polype; and all the polypes are connected together by a fleshy +substance, traversed by innumerable canals which place each polype in +communication with every other, and carry nourishment to the substance +of the supporting stem. It is a sort of natural cooperative store, +every polype helping the whole, at the same time as it helps itself. The +interior of the stem, like that of the branches, is solidified by the +deposition of carbonate of lime in its tissue, somewhat in the same +fashion as our own bones are formed of animal matter impregnated with +lime salts; and it is this dense skeleton (usually turned red by a +peculiar colouring matter) cleared of the soft animal investment, as +the hard wood of a tree might be stripped of its bark, which is the red +coral. + +In the case of the red coral, the hard skeleton belongs to the interior +of the stem and branches only; but in the commoner white corals, each +polype has a complete skeleton of its own. These polypes are sometimes +solitary, in which case the whole skeleton is represented by a single +cup, with partitions radiating from its centre to its circumference. +When the polypes formed by budding or division remain associated, the +polypidom is sometimes made up of nothing but an aggregation of these +cups, while at other times the cups are at once separated and held +together, by an intermediate substance, which represents the branches +of the red coral. The red coral polype again is a comparatively rare +animal, inhabiting a limited area, the skeleton of which has but a very +insignificant mass; while the white corals are very common, occur +in almost all seas, and form skeletons which are sometimes extremely +massive. + +With a very few exceptions, both the red and the white coral polypes +are, in their adult state, firmly adherent to the sea-bottom; nor do +their buds naturally become detached and locomotive. But, in addition to +budding and division, these creatures possess the more ordinary methods +of multiplication; and, at particular seasons, they give rise to +numerous eggs of minute size. Within these eggs the young are formed, +and they leave the egg in a condition which has no sort of resemblance +to the perfect animal. It is, in fact, a minute oval body, many hundred +times smaller than the full grown creature, and it swims about with +great activity by the help of multitudes of little hair-like filaments, +called cilia, with which its body is covered. These cilia all lash the +water in one direction, and so drive the little body along as if it were +propelled by thousands of extremely minute paddles. After enjoying its +freedom for a longer or shorter time, and being carried either by the +force of its own cilia, or by currents which bear it along, the embryo +coral settles down to the bottom, loses its cilia, and becomes fixed to +the rock, gradually assuming the polype form and growing up to the size +of its parent. As the infant polypes of the coral may retain this free +and active condition for many hours, or even days, and as a tidal or +other current in the sea may easily flow at the speed of two or even +more miles in an hour, it is clear that the embryo must often be +transported to very considerable distances from the parent. And it is +easily understood how a single polype, which may give rise to hundreds, +or perhaps thousands, of embryos, may, by this process of partly +active and partly passive migration, cover an immense surface with its +offspring. + +The masses of coral which may be formed by the assemblages of polypes +which spring by budding, or by dividing, from a single polype, +occasionally attain very considerable dimensions. Such skeletons are +sometimes great plates, many feet long and several feet in thickness; or +they may form huge half globes, like the brainstone corals, or may reach +the magnitude of stout shrubs or even small trees. There is reason to +believe that such masses as these take a long time to form, and +hence that the age a polype tree, or polype turf, may attain, may be +considerable. But, sooner or later, the coral polypes, like all other +things, die; the soft flesh decays, while the skeleton is left as a +stony mass at the bottom of the sea, where it retains its integrity for +a longer or a shorter time, according as its position affords more or +less protection from the wear and tear of the waves. + +The polypes which give rise to the white coral are found, as has been +said, in the seas of all parts of the world; but in the temperate and +cold oceans they are scattered and comparatively small in size, so that +the skeletons of those which die do not accumulate in any considerable +quantity. But it is otherwise in the greater part of the ocean which +lies in the warmer parts of the world, comprised within a distance of +about eighteen hundred miles on each side of the equator. Within the +zone thus bounded, by far the greater part of the ocean is inhabited by +coral polypes, which not only form very strong and large skeletons, but +associate together into great masses, like the thickets and the meadow +turf, or, better still, the accumulations of peat, to which plants give +rise on dry land. These masses of stony matter, heaped up beneath the +waters of the ocean, become as dangerous to mariners as so much ordinary +rock, and to these, as to the common rock ridges, the seaman gives the +name of "reefs." + +Such coral reefs cover many thousand square miles in the Pacific and in +the Indian Oceans. There is one reef, or rather great series of reefs, +called the Barrier Reef, which stretches, almost continuously, for more +than eleven hundred miles off the east coast of Australia. Multitudes +of the islands in the Pacific are either reefs themselves, or are +surrounded by reefs. The Red Sea is in many parts almost a maze of such +reefs, and they abound no less in the West Indies, along the coast of +Florida, and even as far north as the Bahama Islands. But it is a very +remarkable circumstance that, within the area of what we may call the +"coral zone," there are no coral reefs upon the west coast of America, +nor upon the west coast of Africa; and it is a general fact that the +reefs are interrupted, or absent, opposite the mouths of great rivers. +The causes of this apparent caprice in the distribution of coral reefs +are not far to seek. The polypes which fabricate them require for their +vigorous growth a temperature which must not fall below 68 degrees +Fahrenheit all the year round, and this temperature is only to be +found within the distance on each side of the equator which has been +mentioned, or thereabouts. But even within the coral zone this degree of +warmth is not everywhere to be had. On the west coast of America, and on +the corresponding coast of Africa, the currents of cold water from the +icy regions which surround the South Pole set northward, and it appears +to be due to their cooling influence that the sea in these regions is +free from the reef builders. Again, the coral polypes cannot live in +water which is rendered brackish by floods from the land, or which is +perturbed by mud from the same source, and hence it is that they cease +to exist opposite the mouths of rivers, which damage them in both these +ways. + +Such is the general distribution of the reef-building corals, but there +are some very interesting and singular circumstances to be observed in +the conformation of the reefs, when we consider them individually. The +reefs, in fact, are of three different kinds; some of them stretch out +from the shore, almost like a prolongation of the beach, covered only +by shallow water, and in the case of an island, surrounding it like a +fringe of no considerable breadth. These are termed "fringing reefs." +Others are separated by a channel which may attain a width of many +miles, and a depth of twenty or thirty fathoms or more, from the nearest +land; and when this land is an island, the reef surrounds it like a low +wall, and the sea between the reef and the land is, as it were, a moat +inside this wall. Such reefs as these are called "encircling" when they +surround an island; and "barrier" reefs, when they stretch parallel with +the coast of a continent. In both these cases there is ordinary dry land +inside the reef, and separated from it only by a narrower or a wider, +a shallower or a deeper, space of sea, which is called a "lagoon," +or "inner passage." But there is a third kind of reef, of very common +occurrence in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which goes by the name +of "atoll." This is, to all intents and purposes, an encircling reef, +without anything to encircle; or, in other words, without an island +in the middle of its lagoon. The atoll has exactly the appearance of a +vast, irregularly oval, or circular, breakwater, enclosing smooth water +in its midst. The depth of the water in the lagoon rarely exceeds twenty +or thirty fathoms, but, outside the reef, it deepens with great rapidity +to two hundred or three hundred fathoms. The depth immediately outside +the barrier, or encircling, reefs, may also be very considerable; but, +at the outer edge of a fringing reef, it does not amount usually to more +than twenty or twenty-five fathoms; in other words, from one hundred and +twenty to one hundred and fifty feet. + +Thus, if the water of the ocean should be suddenly drained away, we +should see the atolls rising from the sea-bed like vast truncated cones, +and resembling so many volcanic craters, except that their sides +would be steeper than those of an ordinary volcano. In the case of the +encircling reefs, the cone, with the enclosed island, would look like +Vesuvius with Monte Nuovo within the old crater of Somma;[121] while, +finally, the island with a fringing reef would have the appearance of an +ordinary hill, or mountain, girded by a vast parapet, within which would +lie a shallow moat. And the dry bed of the Pacific might afford grounds +for an inhabitant of the moon to speculate upon the extraordinary +subterranean activity to which these vast and numerous "craters" bore +witness! + +When the structure of a fringing reef is investigated, the bottom of the +lagoon is found to be covered with fine whitish mud, which results from +the breaking up of the dead corals. Upon this muddy floor there lie, +here and there, growing corals, or occasionally great blocks of dead +coral, which have been torn by storms from the outer edge of the reef, +and washed into the lagoon. Shellfish and worms of various kinds abound; +and fish, some of which prey upon the coral, sport in the deeper pools. +But the corals which are to be seen growing in the shallow waters of the +lagoon are of a different kind from those which abound on the outer edge +of the reef, and of which the reef is built up. Close to the seaward +edge of the reef, over which, even in calm weather, a surf almost always +breaks, the coral rock is encrusted with a thick coat of a singular +vegetable organism, which contains a great deal of lime--the so-called +Nullipora. Beyond this, in the part of the edge of the reef which is +always covered by the breaking waves, the living, true, reef-polypes +make their appearance; and, in different forms, coat the steep seaward +face of the reef to a depth of one hundred or even one hundred and fifty +feet. Beyond this depth the sounding-lead rests, not upon the wall-like +face of the reef, but on the ordinary shelving sea-bottom. And the +distance to which a fringing reef extends from the land corresponds with +that at which the sea has a depth of twenty or five-and-twenty fathoms. + +If, as we have supposed, the sea could be suddenly withdrawn from around +an island provided with a fringing reef, such as the Mauritius,[122] +the reef would present the aspect of a terrace, its seaward face, one +hundred feet or more high, blooming with the animal flowers of the +coral, while its surface would be hollowed out into a shallow and +irregular moat-like excavation. + +The coral mud, which occupies the bottom of the lagoon, and with which +all the interstices of the coral skeletons which accumulate to form +the reef are filled up, does not proceed from the washing action of the +waves alone; innumerable fishes, and other creatures which prey upon the +coral, add a very important contribution of finely-triturated calcareous +matter; and the corals and mud becoming incorporated together, gradually +harden and give rise to a sort of limestone rock, which may vary a good +deal in texture. Sometimes it remains friable and chalky, but, more +often, the infiltration of water, charged with carbonic acid, dissolves +some of the calcareous matter, and deposits it elsewhere in the +interstices of the nascent rock, thus glueing and cementing the +particles together into a hard mass; or it may even dissolve the +carbonate of lime more extensively, and re-deposit it in a crystalline +form. On the beach of the lagoon, where the coral sand is washed into +layers by the action of the waves, its grains become thus fused together +into strata of a limestone, so hard that they ring when struck with a +hammer, and inclined at a gentle angle, corresponding with that of the +surface of the beach. The hard parts of the many animals which live upon +the reef become imbedded in this coral limestone, so that a block may +be full of shells of bivalves and univalves, or of sea urchins; and even +sometimes encloses the eggs of turtles in a state of petrification. +The active and vigorous growth of the reef goes on only at the seaward +margins, where the polypes are exposed to the wash of the surf, and +are thereby provided with an abundant supply of air and of food. +The interior portion of the reef may be regarded as almost wholly an +accumulation of dead skeletons. Where a river comes down from the land +there is a break in the reef, for the reasons which have been already +mentioned. + +The origin and mode of formation of a fringing reef, such as that just +described, are plain enough. The embryos of the coral polypes have fixed +themselves upon the submerged shore of the island, as far out as they +could live, namely, to a depth of twenty or twenty-five fathoms. One +generation has succeeded another, building itself up upon the dead +skeletons of its predecessor. The mass has been consolidated by +the infiltration of coral mud, and hardened by partial solution and +redeposition, until a great rampart of coral rock one hundred or one +hundred and fifty feet high on its seaward face has been formed all +round the island, with only such gaps as result from the outflow of +rivers, in the place of sally-ports. + +The structure of the rocky accumulation in the encircling reefs and +in the atolls is essentially the same as in the fringing reef. But, in +addition to the differences of depth inside and out, they present some +other peculiarities. These reefs, and especially the atolls, are usually +interrupted at one part of their circumference, and this part is always +situated on the leeward side of the reef, or that which is the more +sheltered side. Now, as all these reefs are situated within the region +in which the tradewinds prevail, it follows that, on the north side of +the equator, where the trade-wind is a northeasterly wind, the opening +of the reef is on the southwest side: while in the southern hemisphere, +where the trade-winds blow from the southeast, the opening lies to the +northwest. The curious practical result follows from this structure, +that the lagoons to these reefs really form admirable harbours, if +a ship can only get inside them. But the main difference between the +encircling reefs and the atolls, on the one hand, and the fringing reefs +on the other, lies in the fact of the much greater depth of water on the +seaward faces of the former. As a consequence of this fact, the whole +of this face is not, as it is in the case of the fringing reef, covered +with living coral polypes. For, as we have seen, these polypes cannot +live at a greater depth than about twenty-five fathoms; and actual +observation has shown that while, down to this depth, the sounding-lead +will bring up branches of live coral from the outer wall of such a reef, +at a greater depth it fetches to the surface nothing but dead coral and +coral sand. We must, therefore, picture to ourselves an atoll, or an +encircling reef, as fringed for one hundred feet, or more, from its +summit, with coral polypes busily engaged in fabricating coral; while, +below this comparatively narrow belt, its surface is a bare and smooth +expanse of coral sand, supported upon and within a core of coral +limestone. Thus, if the bed of the Pacific were suddenly laid bare, as +was just now supposed, the appearance of the reef-mountains would be +exactly the reverse of that presented by many high mountains on land. +For these are white with snow at the top, while their bases are clothed +with an abundant and gaudily-coloured vegetation. But the coral cones +would look grey and barren below, while their summits would be gay with +a richly-coloured parterre of flowerlike coral polypes. + +The practical difficulties of sounding upon, and of bringing up portions +of, the seaward face of an atoll or of an encircling reef, are so great, +in consequence of the constant and dangerous swell which sets towards +it, that no exact information concerning the depth to which the reefs +are composed of coral has yet been obtained. There is no reason to +doubt, however, that the reef-cone has the same structure from its +summit to its base, and that its sea-wall is throughout mainly composed +of dead coral. + +And now arises a serious difficulty. If the coral polypes cannot live at +a greater depth than one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet, how can +they have built up the base of the reef-cone, which may be two thousand +feet, or more, below the surface of the sea? + +In order to get over this objection, it was at one time supposed that +the reef-building polypes had settled upon the summits of a chain of +submarine mountains. But what is there in physical geography to justify +the assumption of the existence of a chain of mountains stretching for +one thousand miles or more, and so nearly of the same height, that none +should rise above the level of the sea, nor fall one hundred and fifty +feet below that level? + +How, again, on this hypothesis, are atolls to be accounted for, unless, +as some have done, we take refuge in the wild supposition that every +atoll corresponds with the crater of a submarine volcano? And what +explanation does it afford of the fact that, in some parts of the ocean, +only atolls and encircling reefs occur, while others present none but +fringing reefs? + +These and other puzzling facts remained insoluble until the publication, +in the year 1840, of Mr. Darwin's famous work on coral reefs;[123] in +which a key was given to all the difficult problems connected with the +subject, and every difficulty was shown to be capable of solution by +deductive reasoning from a happy combination of certain well-established +geological and biological truths. Mr. Darwin, in fact, showed that, +so long as the level of the sea remains unaltered in any area in which +coral reefs are being formed, or if the level of the sea relatively +to that of the land is falling, the only reefs which can be formed +are fringing reefs. While if, on the contrary, the level of the sea is +rising relatively to that of the land, at a rate not faster than that +at which the upward growth of the coral can keep pace with it, the reef +will gradually pass from the condition of a fringing, into that of an +encircling or barrier reef. And, finally, that if the relative level of +the sea rise so much that the encircled land is completely submerged, +the reef must necessarily pass into the condition of an atoll. + +For, suppose the relative level of the sea to remain stationary, after a +fringing reef has reached that distance from the land at which the depth +of water amounts to one hundred and fifty feet. Then the reef cannot +extend seaward by the migration of coral germs, because these coral +germs would find the bottom of the sea to be too deep for them to live +in. And the only manner in which the reef could extend outwards, would +be by the gradual accumulation, at the foot of its seaward face, of a +talus of coral fragments torn off by the violence of the waves, which +talus might, in course of time, become high enough to bring its upper +surface within the limits of coral growth, and in that manner provide a +sort of factitious sea-bottom upon which the coral embryos might perch. +If, on the other hand, the level of the sea were slowly and gradually +lowered, it is clear that the parts of its bottom originally beyond the +limit of coral growth would gradually be brought within the required +distance of the surface, and thus the reef might be indefinitely +extended. But this process would give rise neither to an encircling reef +nor to an atoll, but to a broad belt of upheaved coral rock, increasing +the dimensions of the dry land, and continuous seawards with the fresh +fringing reef. + +Suppose, however, that the sea-level rose instead of falling, at the +same slow and gradual rate at which we know it to be rising in some +parts of the world,--not more, in fact, than a few inches, or, at most, +a foot or two, in a hundred years. Then, while the reef would be unable +to extend itself seaward, the sea-bottom outside it being gradually more +and more removed from the depth at which the life of the coral polypes +is possible, it would be able to grow upwards as fast as the sea +rose. But the growth would take place almost exclusively around the +circumference of the reef, this being the only region in which the coral +polypes would find the conditions favourable for their existence. The +bottom of the lagoon would be raised, in the main, only by the +coral debris and coral mud, formed in the manner already described; +consequently, the margins of the reef would rise faster than the bottom, +or, in other words, the lagoon would constantly become deeper. And, at +the same time, it would gradually increase in breadth; as the rising +sea, covering more of the land, would occupy a wider space between the +edge of the reef and what remained of the land. Thus the rising sea +would eventually convert a large island with a fringing reef into a +small island surrounded by an encircling reef. And it will be obvious +that when the rising of the sea has gone so far as completely to cover +the highest points of the island, the reef will have passed into the +condition of an atoll. + +But how is it possible that the relative level of the land and sea +should be altered to this extent? Clearly, only in one of two ways: +either the sea must have risen over those areas which are now covered by +atolls and encircling reefs; or, the land upon which the sea rests must +have been depressed to a corresponding extent. + +If the sea has risen, its rise must have taken place over the whole +world simultaneously, and it must have risen to the same height over all +parts of the coral zone. Grounds have been shown for the belief that the +general level of the sea may have been different at different times; it +has been suggested, for example, that the accumulation of ice about the +poles during one of the cold periods of the earth's history necessarily +implies a diminution in the volume of the sea proportioned to the amount +of its water thus permanently locked up in the Arctic and Antarctic +ice-cellars; while, in the warm periods, the greater or less +disappearance of the polar ice-cap implies a corresponding addition of +water to the ocean. And no doubt this reasoning must be admitted to be +sound in principle; though it is very hard to say what practical effect +the additions and subtractions thus made have had on the level of the +ocean; inasmuch as such additions and subtractions might be either +intensified or nullified, by contemporaneous changes in the level of the +land. And no one has yet shown that any such great melting of polar ice, +and consequent raising of the level of the water of the ocean, has taken +place since the existing atolls began to be formed. + +In the absence of any evidence that the sea has ever risen to the extent +required to give rise to the encircling reefs and the atolls, Mr. Darwin +adopted the opposite hypothesis, viz., that the land has undergone +extensive and slow depression in those localities in which these +structures exist. + +It seems, at first, a startling paradox, to suppose that the land +is less fixed than the sea; but that such is the case is the uniform +testimony of geology. Beds of sandstone or limestone, thousands of feet +thick, and all full of marine remains, occur in various parts of the +earth's surface, and prove, beyond a doubt, that when these beds +were formed, that portion of the sea-bottom which they then occupied +underwent a slow and gradual depression to a distance which cannot have +been less than the thickness of those beds, and may have been very much +greater. In supposing, therefore, that the great areas of the Pacific +and of the Indian Ocean, over which atolls and encircling reefs are +found scattered, have undergone a depression of some hundreds, or, +it may be, thousands of feet, Mr. Darwin made a supposition which had +nothing forced or improbable, but was entirely in accordance with what +we know to have taken place over similarly extensive areas, in other +periods of the world's history. But Mr. Darwin subjected his hypothesis +to an ingenious indirect test. If his view be correct, it is clear that +neither atolls, nor encircling reefs, should be found in those portions +of the ocean in which we have reason to believe, on independent grounds, +that the sea-bottom has long been either stationary, or slowly rising. +Now it is known that, as a general rule, the level of the land is either +stationary, or is undergoing a slow upheaval, in the neighborhood of +active volcanoes; and, therefore, neither atolls nor encircling reefs +ought to be found in regions in which volcanoes are numerous and active. +And this turns out to be the case. Appended to Mr. Darwin's great work +on coral reefs, there is a map on which atolls and encircling reefs are +indicated by one colour, fringing reefs by another, and active volcanoes +by a third. And it is at once obvious that the lines of active volcanoes +lie around the margins of the areas occupied by the atolls and the +encircling reefs. It is exactly as if the upheaving volcanic agencies +had lifted up the edges of these great areas, while their centres had +undergone a corresponding depression. An atoll area may, in short, be +pictured as a kind of basin, the margins of which have been pushed up by +the subterranean forces, to which the craters of the volcanoes have, at +intervals, given vent. + +Thus we must imagine the area of the Pacific now covered by the +Polynesian Archipelago, as having been, at some former time, occupied +by large islands, or, may be, by a great continent, with the ordinarily +diversified surface of plain, and hill, and mountain chain. The shores +of this great land were doubtless fringed by coral reefs; and, as it +slowly underwent depression, the hilly regions, converted into islands, +became, at first, surrounded by fringing reefs, and then, as depression +went on, these became converted into encircling reefs, and these, +finally, into atolls, until a maze of reefs and coral-girdled islets +took the place of the original land masses. + +Thus the atolls and the encircling reefs furnish us with clear, though +indirect, evidence of changes in the physical geography of large parts +of the earth's surface; and even, as my lamented friend, the late +Professor Jukes,[124] has suggested, give us indications of the manner +in which some of the most puzzling facts connected with the distribution +of animals have been brought about. For example, Australia and New +Guinea are separated by Torres Straits, a broad belt of sea one hundred +or one hundred and twenty miles wide. Nevertheless, there is in many +respects a curious resemblance between the land animals which inhabit +New Guinea and the land animals which inhabit Australia. But, at the +same time, the marine shellfish which are found in the shallow waters +of the shores of New Guinea are quite different from those which are +met with upon the coasts of Australia. Now, the eastern end of Torres +Straits is full of atolls, which, in fact, form the northern termination +of the Great Barrier Reef which skirts the eastern coast of Australia. +It follows, therefore, that the eastern end of Torres Straits is an +area of depression, and it is very possible, and on many grounds highly +probable, that, in former times, Australia and New Guinea were directly +connected together, and that Torres Straits did not exist. If this were +the case, the existence of cassowaries and of marsupial quadrupeds, +both in New Guinea and in Australia, becomes intelligible; while the +difference between the littoral molluscs of the north and the south +shores of Torres Straits is readily explained by the great probability +that, when the depression in question took place, and what was, at +first, an arm of the sea became converted into a strait separating +Australia from New Guinea, the northern shore of this new sea became +tenanted with marine animals from the north, while the southern shore +was peopled by immigrants from the already existing marine Australian +fauna. + +Inasmuch as the growth of the reef depends upon that of successive +generations of coral polypes, and as each generation takes a certain +time to grow to its full size, and can only separate its calcareous +skeleton from the water in which it lives at a certain rate, it is clear +that the reefs are records not only of changes in physical geography, +but of the lapse of time. It is by no means easy, however, to estimate +the exact value of reef chronology, and the attempts which have been +made to determine the rate at which a reef grows vertically have yielded +anything but precise results. A cautious writer, Mr. Dana,[125] whose +extensive study of corals and coral reefs makes him an eminently +competent judge, states his conclusion in the following terms:-- + +"The rate of growth of the common branching madrepore is not over one +and a half inches a year. As the branches are open, this would not be +equivalent to more than half an inch in height of solid coral for the +whole surface covered by the madrepore; and, as they are also porous, +to not over three-eighths of an inch of solid limestone. But a coral +plantation has large bare patches without corals, and the coral sands +are widely distributed by currents, part of them to depths over one +hundred feet where there are no living corals; not more than one-sixth +of the surface of a reef region is, in fact, covered with growing +species. This reduces the three-eighths to ONE-SIXTEENTH. Shells and +other organic relics may contribute one-fourth as much as corals. At the +outside, the average upward increase of the whole reef-ground per year +would not exceed ONE-EIGHTH of an inch. + +"Now some reefs are at least two thousand feet thick, which at +one-eighth of an inch a year, corresponds to one hundred and ninety-two +thousand years."* + + * Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 591. + +Halve, or quarter, this estimate if you will, in order to be certain of +erring upon the right side, and still there remains a prodigious +period during which the ancestors of existing coral polypes have +been undisturbedly at work; and during which, therefore, the climatal +conditions over the coral area must have been much what they are now. + +And all this lapse of time has occurred within the most recent period of +the history of the earth. The remains of reefs formed by coral polypes +of different kinds from those which exist now, enter largely into the +composition of the limestones of the Jurassic period;[126] and still +more widely different coral polypes have contributed their quota to the +vast thickness of the carboniferous and Devonian strata. Then as regards +the latter group of rocks in America, the high authority already quoted +tells us:-- + +"The Upper Helderberg period is eminently the coral reef period of the +palaeozoic ages. Many of the rocks abound in coral, and are as truly +coral reefs as the modern reefs of the Pacific. The corals are sometimes +standing on the rocks in the position they had when growing: others are +lying in fragments, as they were broken and heaped by the waves; and +others were reduced to a compact limestone by the finer trituration +before consolidation into rock. This compact variety is the most common +kind among the coral reef rocks of the present seas; and it often +contains but few distinct fossils, although formed in water that +abounded in life. At the fall of the Ohio, near Louisville, there is a +magnificent display of the old reef. Hemispherical Favosites, five or +six feet in diameter, lie there nearly as perfect as when they were +covered by their flowerlike polypes; and besides these, there are +various branching corals, and a profusion of Cyathophyllia, or +cup-corals."* + + * Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 272. + +Thus, in all the great periods of the earth's history of which we know +anything, a part of the then living matter has had the form of polypes, +competent to separate from the water of the sea the carbonate of lime +necessary for their own skeletons. Grain by grain, and particle by +particle, they have built up vast masses of rock, the thickness of which +is measured by hundreds of feet, and their area by thousands of square +miles. The slow oscillations of the crust of the earth, producing great +changes in the distribution of land and water, have often obliged +the living matter of the coral-builders to shift the locality of its +operations; and, by variation and adaptation to these modifications of +condition, its forms have as often changed. The work it has done in the +past is, for the most part, swept away, but fragments remain, and, if +there were no other evidence, suffice to prove the general constancy +of the operations of Nature in this world, through periods of almost +inconceivable duration. + + + + +NOTES + + + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +[Footnote 1: Autobiography: Huxley's account of this sketch, written in +1889, is as follows: "A man who is bringing out a series of portraits of +celebrities, with a sketch of their career attached, has bothered me +out of my life for something to go with my portrait, and to escape the +abominable bad taste of some of the notices, I have done that."] + +[Footnote 2: pre-Boswellian epoch: the time before Boswell. James +Boswell (1740-1795) wrote the famous Life of Samuel Johnson. Mr. Leslie +Stephen declares that this book "became the first specimen of a new +literary type." "It is a full-length portrait of a man's domestic life +with enough picturesque detail to enable us to see him through the eyes +of private friendship. . . ." A number of biographers since Boswell have +imitated his method; and Leslie Stephen believes that "we owe it in some +degree to his example that we have such delightful books as Lockhart's +Life of Scott or Mr. Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay."] + +[Footnote 3: "Bene qui latuit, bene vixit": from Ovid. He who has kept +himself well hidden, has lived well.] + +[Footnote 4: Prince George of Cambridge: the grandson of King George +III, second Duke of Cambridge, and Commander-in-chief of the British +Army.] + +[Footnote 5: Mr. Herbert Spencer (1820--1903): a celebrated English +philosopher and powerful advocate of the doctrine of evolution. Spencer +is regarded as one of the most profound thinkers of modern times. He was +one of Huxley's closest friends.] + +[Footnote 6: in partibus infidelium: in the domain of the unbelievers.] + +[Footnote 7: "sweet south upon a bed of violets." Cf. Twelfth Night, Act +I, sc. I, l. 5. + + O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound + That breathes upon a bank of violets, + Stealing and giving odour. + +For the reading "sweet south" instead of "sweet sound," see Rolfe's +edition of Twelfth Night.] + +[Footnote 8: "Lehrjahre": apprenticeship. + +Charing Cross School of Medicine: a school connected with the Charing +Cross Hospital in the Strand, London.] + +[Footnote 9: Nelson: Horatio Nelson, a celebrated English Admiral born +in Norfolk, England, 1758, and died on board the Victory at Trafalgar, +1805. It was before the battle off Cape Trafalgar that Nelson hoisted +his famous signal, "England expects every man will do his duty." Cf. +Tennyson's Ode to the Duke of Wellington, stanza VI, for a famous +tribute to Nelson.] + +[Footnote 10: middies: abbreviated form for midshipmen.] + +[Footnote 11: Suites a Buffon: sequels to Buffon. Buffon (1707-1781) was +a French naturalist who wrote many volumes on science.] + +[Footnote 12: Linnean Society: a scientific society formed in 1788 under +the auspices of several fellows of the Royal Society.] + +[Footnote 13: Royal Society: The Royal Society for Improving Natural +Knowledge; the oldest scientific society in Great Britain, and one of +the oldest in Europe. It was founded by Charles II, in 1660, its nucleus +being an association of learned men already in existence. It is supposed +to be identical with the Invisible College which Boyle mentions in 1646. +It was incorporated under the name of The Royal Society in 1661. The +publications of the Royal Society are called Philosophical Transactions. +The society has close connection with the government, and has assisted +the government in various important scientific undertakings among +which may be mentioned Parry's North Pole expedition. The society also +distributes $20,000 yearly for the promotion of scientific research.] + +[Footnote 14: Rastignac: a character in Le Pere Goriot. At the close of +the story Rastignac says, "A nous deux, maintenant":--Henceforth there +is war between us.] + +[Footnote 15: Pere Goriot: a novel of Balzac's with a plot similar to +King Lear.] + +[Footnote 16: Professor Tyndall (1820-1893): a distinguished British +physicist and member of the Royal Society. He explored with Huxley the +glaciers of Switzerland. His work in electricity, radiant heat, light +and acoustics gave him a foremost place in science.] + +[Footnote 17: Ecclesiastical spirit: the spirit manifested by the clergy +of England in Huxley's time against the truths of science. The clergy +considered scientific truth to be disastrous to religious truth. +Huxley's attitude toward the teaching of religious truth is illuminated +by this quotation, which he uses to explain his own position: "I have +the fullest confidence that in the reading and explaining of the Bible, +what the children will be taught will be the great truths of Christian +Life and conduct, which all of us desire they should know, and that no +effort will be made to cram into their poor little minds, theological +dogmas which their tender age prevents them from understanding." +Huxley defines his idea of a church as a place in which, "week by +week, services should be devoted, not to the iteration of abstract +propositions in theology, but to the setting before men's minds of an +ideal of true, just and pure living; a place in which those who are +weary of the burden of daily cares should find a moment's rest in the +contemplation of the higher life which is possible for all, though +attained by so few; a place in which the man of strife and of business +should have time to think how small, after all, are the rewards he +covets compared with peace and charity."] + +[Footnote 18: New Reformation: Huxley writes: "We are in the midst of +a gigantic movement greater than that which preceded and produced the +Reformation, and really only the continuation of that movement. . . . +But this organization will be the work of generations of men, and those +who further it most will be those who teach men to rest in no lie, and +to rest in no verbal delusion."] + + + + +ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE (1866) + + +[Footnote 19: On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge: +from Method and Results: also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and +Reviews.] + +For the history of the times mentioned in this essay, see Green's Short +History of the English People.] + +[Footnote 20: The very spot: St. Martin's Borough Hall and Public +Library, on Charing Cross Road, near Trafalgar Square.] + +[Footnote 21: Defoe (1661-1731): an English novelist and political +writer. On account of his political writings Defoe was sentenced +to stand in the pillory, and to be "imprisoned during the Queen's +pleasure." During this imprisonment he wrote many articles. Later in +life he wrote Robinson Crusoe, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll +Flanders, Journal of the Plague Year, and other books less well known.] + +[Footnote 22: unholy cursing and crackling wit of the Rochesters and +Sedleys: John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, and Sir Charles +Sedley, were both friends of Charles II, and were noted for biting wit +and profligacy. Green, in his Short History of the English People, thus +describes them: "Lord Rochester was a fashionable poet, and the titles +of some of his poems are such as no pen of our day could copy. Sir +Charles Sedley was a fashionable wit, and the foulness of his words made +even the porters in the Covent Garden belt him from the balcony when he +ventured to address them."] + +[Footnote 23: Laud: Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud was born in 1573, and +beheaded at London in 1645. He was throughout the reign of Charles I a +staunch supporter of the King. He was impeached by the Long Parliament +in 1640 and executed on Tower Hill, in 1645.] + +[Footnote 24: selenography: the scientific study of the moon with +special reference to its physical condition.] + +[Footnote 25: Torricellian experiment: a reference to the discovery of +the principle of the barometer by the Italian, Torricelli, in 1643.] + +[Footnote 26: Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Bacon endeavored to teach +that civilization cannot be brought to a high point except as man +applies himself to the study of the secrets of nature, and uses +these discoveries for inventions which will give him power over his +environment. The chief value of the work was that it called attention +to the uses of induction and to the experimental study of facts. See +Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy, page 243.] + +[Footnote 27: The learned Dr. Wallis (1616-1703): Dr. Wallis is regarded +as the greatest of Newton's predecessors in mathematical history. His +works are numerous and are on a great variety of subjects. He was one of +the first members of the Royal Society.] + +[Footnote 28: "New Philosophy": Bacon's ideas on science and philosophy +as set forth in his works.] + +[Footnote 29: Royal Society: see note, page 11.] + +[Footnote 30: Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1721): a distinguished natural +philosopher of England. Newton was elected a member of the Royal +Society in 1672. His most important scientific accomplishment was the +establishing of the law of universal gravitation. The story of the +fall of the apple was first related by Voltaire to whom it was given by +Newton's niece.] + +[Footnote 31: "Philosophical Transactions": the publications of the +Royal Society.] + +[Footnote 32: Galileo (1564-1642): a famous Italian astronomer. His most +noted work was the construction of the thermometer and a telescope. He +discovered the satellites of Jupiter in 1610. In 1610, also, he observed +the sun's spots. His views were condemned by the Pope in 1616 and in +1633 he was forced by the Inquisition to abjure the Copernican theory.] + +[Footnote 33: Vesalius (1514-1564): a noted Belgian anatomist.] + +[Footnote 34: Harvey (1578-1657): an English physiologist and anatomist. +He is noted especially for his discovery of the circulation of the +blood.] + +[Footnote 35: Subtle speculations: Selby gives examples from questions +discussed by Thomas Aquinas. Whether all angels belong to the same +genus, whether demons are evil by nature, or by will, whether they can +change one substance into another, . . . whether an angel can move from +one point to another without passing through intermediate space.] + +[Footnote 36: Schoolmen: a term used to designate the followers of +scholasticism, a philosophy of dogmatic religion which assumed a certain +subject-matter as absolute and unquestionable. The duty of the Schoolman +was to explain church doctrine; these explanations were characterized +by fine distinctions and by an absence of real content. See Roger's A +Student's History of Philosophy; also Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy +and Psychology.] + +[Footnote 37: "writ in water": an allusion to Keats' request that the +words "Here lies one whose name was writ in water" be his epitaph. The +words are inscribed on his tomb in the Protestant Cemetery at Rome.] + +[Footnote 38: Lord Brouncker: The first president of the Royal Society +after its incorporation in 1662 was Lord Brouneker.] + +[Footnote 39: revenant: ghost.] + +[Footnote 40: Boyle: Robert Boyle (1627-1691): a British chemist and +natural philosopher who was noted especially for his discovery of +Boyle's law of the elasticity of air.] + +[Footnote 41: Evelyn (1620-1706): an English author and member of the +Royal Society. His most important work is the Diary, valuable for the +full account which it gives of the manners and customs of the time.] + +[Footnote 42: The Restoration: In English history the re-establishing +of the English monarchy with the return of King Charles II in 1660; +by extension the whole reign of Charles II: as, the dramatists of the +Restoration. Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 43: Aladdin's lamps: a reference to the story of the Wonderful +Lamp in the Arabian Nights. The magic lamp brought marvelous good +fortune to the poor widow's son who possessed it. Cf. also Lowell's +Aladdin:-- + + When I was a beggarly boy, + And lived in a cellar damp, + I had not a friend or a toy, + But I had Aladdin's lamp; + When I could not sleep for the cold, + I had fire enough in my brain, + And builded, with roofs of gold, + My beautiful castles in Spain!] + +[Footnote 44: "When in heaven the stars": from Tennyson's Specimens of a +Translation of the Iliad in Blank Verse.] + +[Footnote 45: "increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate": +Bacon's statement of his purpose in writing the Advancement of +Learning.] + +[Footnote 46: For example, etc.: could the sentence beginning thus be +written in better form?] + +[Footnote 47: Rumford (1738-1814): Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an +eminent scientist. Rumford was born in America and educated at Harvard. +Suspected of loyalty to the King at the time of the revolution, he was +imprisoned. Acquitted, he went to England where he became prominent in +politics and science. Invested with the title of Count by the Holy Roman +Empire, he chose Rumford for his title after the name of the little +New Hampshire town where he had taught. He gave a large sum of money to +Harvard College to found the Rumford professorship of science.] + +[Footnote 48: eccentric: out of the centre.] + + + + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION (1868) + + +[Footnote 49: A Liberal Education: from Science and Education; also +published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.] + +[Footnote 50: Ichabod: cf. 1 Sam. iv, 21.] + +[Footnote 51: senior wranglership: in Cambridge University, England, +one who has attained the first class in the elementary division of the +public examination for honors in pure and mixed mathematics, commonly +called the mathematical tripos, those who compose the second rank of +honors being designated senior optimes, and those of the third order +junior optimes. The student taking absolutely the first place in the +mathematical tripos used to be called senior wrangler, those following +next in the same division being respectively termed second, third, +fourth, etc., wranglers. Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 52: double-first: any candidate for the degree of Bachelor of +Arts in Oxford University who takes first-class honors in both classics +and mathematics is said to have won a double-first.] + +[Footnote 53: Retzsch (1779-1857): a well-known German painter and +engraver.] + +[Footnote 54: Test-Act: an English statute of 1673. It compelled all +persons holding office under the crown to take the oaths of supremacy +and of allegiance, to receive the sacrament according to the usage +of the Church of England, and to subscribe to the Declaration against +Transubstantiation.] + +[Footnote 55: Poll: an abbreviation and transliteration of [Footnote +Greek words], "the mob"; university slang for the whole body of students +taking merely the degree of Bachelor of Arts, at Cambridge.] + +[Footnote 56: pluck: the rejection of a student, after examinations, who +does not come up to the standard.] + + + + +ON A PIECE OF CHALK + + +[Footnote 57: On a Piece of Chalk: a lecture to working-men from Lay +Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.] + +[Footnote 58: Needles of the Isle of Wight: the needles are three +white, pointed rocks of chalk, resting on dark-colored bases, and +rising abruptly from the sea to a height of 100 feet. Baedeker's Great +Britain.] + +[Footnote 59: Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough Head: Lulworth is on +the southern coast of England, west of the Isle of Wight: Flamborough +Head is on the northeastern coast of England and extends into the German +Ocean.] + +[Footnote 60: Weald: a name given to an oval-shaped chalk area in +England, beginning near the Straits of Dover, and extending into the +counties of Kent, Surrey, Hants, and Sussex.] + +[Footnote 61: Lieut. Brooke: Brooke devised an apparatus for deep-sea +sounding from which the weight necessary to sink the instrument rapidly, +was detached when it reached the bottom. The object was to relieve the +strain on the rope caused by rapid soundings. Improved apparatuses have +been invented since the time of Brooke.] + +[Footnote 62: Ehrenberg (1795-1876): a German naturalist noted for his +studies of Infusoria.] + +[Footnote 63: Bailey of West Point (1811-1857): an American naturalist +noted for his researches in microscopy.] + +[Footnote 64: enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable: the first +Atlantic telegraph-cable between England and America was laid in 1858 by +Cyrus W. Field of New York. Messages were sent over it for a few weeks; +then it ceased to act. A permanent cable was laid by Mr. Field in 1866.] + +[Footnote 65: Dr. Wallich (1786-1854): a Danish botanist and member of +the Royal Society.] + +[Footnote 66: Mr. Sorby: President of the Geological Society of +England, and author of many papers on subjects connected with physical +geography.] + +[Footnote 67: Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875): a British geologist, and +one of the first to uphold Darwin's Origin of Species.] + +[Footnote 68: Echinus: the sea-urchin; an animal which dwells in a +spheroidal shell built up from polygonal plates, and covered with sharp +spines.] + +[Footnote 69: Somme: a river of northern France which flows into the +English Channel northeast of Dieppe.] + +[Footnote 70: the chipped flints of Hoxne and Amiens: the rude +instruments which were made by primitive man were of chipped flint. +Numerous discoveries of large flint implements have been made in the +north of France, near Amiens, and in England. The first noted flint +implements were discovered in Hoxne, Suffolk, England, 1797. Cf. Evans' +Ancient Stone Implements and Lyell's Antiquity of Man.] + +[Footnote 71: Rev. Mr. Gunn (1800-1881): an English naturalist. Mr. +Gunn sent from Tasmania a large number of plants and animals now in the +British Museum.] + +[Footnote 72: "the whirligig of time": cf. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, +Act V, se. I, l. 395.] + +[Footnote 73: Euphrates and Hiddekel: cf. Genesis ii, 14.] + +[Footnote 74: the great river, the river of Babylon: cf. Genesis xv, 18] + +[Footnote 75: Without haste, but without rest: from Goethe's Zahme +Xenien. In a letter to his sister, Huxley says: "And then perhaps by the +following of my favorite motto,-- + + "'Wie das Gestirn, + Ohne Hast, + Ohne Rast'-- + + something may be done, and some of Sister Lizzie's fond + imaginations turn out not altogether untrue." The quotation entire + is as follows:-- + + Wie das Gestirn, + Ohne Hast, + Aber ohne Rast, + Drehe sich jeder + Um die eigne Last.] + + + + +THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION (1882) + + +[Footnote 76: The Principal Subjects of Education: an extract from the +essay, Science and Art in Relation to Education.] + +[Footnote 77: this discussion: "this" refers to the last sentence in the +preceding paragraph, in which Huxley says that it will be impossible to +determine the amount of time to be given to the principal subjects +of education until it is determined "what the principal subjects of +education ought to be."] + +[Footnote 78: Francis Bacon: cf. note [Footnote 26].] + +[Footnote 79: the best chance of being happy: In connection with +Huxley's work on the London School Board, his biographer says that +Huxley did not regard "intellectual training only from the utilitarian +point of view; he insisted, e. g., on the value of reading for amusement +as one of the most valuable uses to hardworked people."] + +[Footnote 80: "Harmony in grey": cf. with l. 34 in Browning's Andrea del +Sarto.] + +[Footnote 81: Hobbes (1588-1679): noted for his views of human nature +and of politics. According to Minto, "The merits ascribed to his style +are brevity, simplicity and precision."] + +[Footnote 82: Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753): an Irish prelate noted for +his philosophical writings and especially for his theory of vision which +was the foundation for modern investigations of the subject. "His style +has always been esteemed admirable; simple, felicitous and sweetly +melodious. His dialogues are sustained with great skill." Minto's Manual +of English Prose Literature.] + +[Footnote 83: We have been recently furnished with in prose: The Iliad +of Homer translated by Lang, Leaf and Myers, the first edition of +which appeared in 1882, is probably the one to which Huxley refers. The +Odyssey, translated by Butcher and Lang, appeared in 1879. Among the +best of the more recent translations of Homer are the Odyssey by George +Herbert Palmer; the Iliad by Arthur S. Way, and the Odyssey by the same +author.] + +[Footnote 84: Locke (1632-1704): an English philosopher of great +influence. His chief work is An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.] + +[Footnote 85: Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit: thus Francis Bacon +thought.] + + + + +THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION (1863) + + +[Footnote 86: The Method of Scientific Investigation is an extract +from the third of six lectures given to workingmen on The Causes of the +Phenomena of Organic Nature in Darwiniana.] + +[Footnote 87: these terrible apparatus: apparatus is the form for both +the singular and plural; apparatuses is another form for the plural.] + +[Footnote 88: Incident in one of Moliere's plays: the allusion is to the +hero, M. Jourdain in the play, "La Bourgeois Gentilbomme."] + +[Footnote 89: these kind: modern writers regard kind as singular. +Shakespeare treated it as a plural noun, as "These kind of knaves I +knew."] + +[Footnote 90: Newton: cf. [Footnote 30].] + +[Footnote 91: Laplace (1749-1827): a celebrated French astronomer and +mathematician. He is best known for his theory of the formation of the +planetary systems, the so-called "nebular hypothesis." Until recently +this hypothesis has generally been accepted in its main outlines. It +is now being supplanted by the "Spiral Nebular Hypothesis" developed +by Professors Moulton and Chamberlin of the University of Chicago. See +Moulton's Introduction to Astronomy, p. 463.] + + + + +ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE (1868) + + +[Footnote 92: On the Physical Basis of Life: from Methods and Results; +also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews. "The substance of +this paper was contained in a discourse which was delivered in Edinburgh +on the evening of Sunday, the 8th of November, 1868--being the first +of a series of Sunday evening addresses upon non-theological topics, +instituted by the Rev. J. Cranbrook. Some phrases, which could possess +only a transitory and local interest, have been omitted; instead of +the newspaper report of the Archbishop of York's address, his Grace's +subsequently published pamphlet On the Limits of Philosophical inquiry +is quoted, and I have, here and there, endeavoured to express my meaning +more fully and clearly than I seem to have done in speaking--if I may +judge by sundry criticisms upon what I am supposed to have said, which +have appeared. But in substance, and, so far as my recollection +serves, in form, what is here written corresponds with what was there +said."--Huxley.] + +[Footnote 93: Finner whale: a name given to a whale which has a dorsal +fin. A Finner whale commonly measures from 60 to 90 feet in length.] + +[Footnote 94: A fortiori: with stronger reason: still more +conclusively.] + +[Footnote 95: well-known epigram: from Goethe's Venetianische Epigramme. +The following is a translation of the passage: Why do the people push +each other and shout? They want to work for their living, bring forth +children; and feed them as well as they possibly can. . . . No man can +attain to more, however much he may pretend to the contrary.] + +[Footnote 96: Maelstroms: a celebrated whirlpool or violent current in +the Arctic Ocean, near the western coast of Norway, between the islands +of Moskenaso and Mosken, formerly supposed to suck in and destroy +everything that approached it at any time, but now known not to be +dangerous except under certain conditions. Century Dictionary. Cf. also +Poe's Descent into the Maelstrom.] + +[Footnote 97: Milne-Edwards (1800-1885): a French naturalist. His +Elements de Zoologie won him a great reputation.] + +[Footnote 98: with such qualifications as arises: a typographical +error.] + +[Footnote 99: De Bary (1831-1888): a German botanist noted especially +for his researches in cryptogamic botany.] + +[Footnote 100: No Man's Land: Huxley probably intends no specific +geographical reference. The expression is common as a designation of +some remote and unfrequented locality.] + +[Footnote 101: Kuhne (1837-1900): a German physiologist and professor of +science at Amsterdam and Heidelberg.] + +[Footnote 102: Debemur morti nos nostraque: Horace--Ars Poetica, line +63. + + As forests change their foliage year by year, + Leaves, that come first, first fall and disappear; + So antique words die out, and in their room, + Others spring up, of vigorous growth and bloom; + Ourselves and all that's ours, to death are due, + And why should words not be mortal too? + +Martin's translation.] + +[Footnote 103: peau de chagrin: skin of a wild ass.] + +[Footnote 104: Balzac (1799-1850): a celebrated French novelist of the +realistic school of fiction.] + +[Footnote 105: Barmecide feast: the allusion is to a story in the +Arabian Nights in which a member of the Barmecide family places a +succession of empty dishes before a beggar, pretending that they contain +a rich repast.] + +[Footnote 106: modus operandi: method of working.] + +[Footnote 107: Martinus Scriblerus: a reference to Memoirs of Martinus +Scriblerus written principally by John Arbuthnot, and published in +1741. The purpose of the papers is given by Warburton and Spence in +the following extracts quoted from the Preface to the Memoirs of the +Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus in +Elwin and Courthope's edition of Pope's works, vol. x, p. 273:-- "Mr. +Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Dr. Swift, in conjunction, formed the project +of a satire on the abuses of human learning; and to make it better +received, proposed to execute it in the manner of Cervantes (the +original author of this species of satire) under a continued narrative +of feigned adventures. They had observed that those abuses still kept +their ground against all that the ablest and gravest authors could say +to discredit them; they concluded, therefore, the force of ridicule was +wanting to quicken their disgrace; and ridicule was here in its place, +when the abuses had been already detected by sober reasoning; and +truth in no danger to suffer by the premature use of so powerful an +instrument."] + +"The design of this work, as stated by Pope himself, is to ridicule all +the false tastes in learning under the character of a man of capacity +enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but injudiciously +in each. It was begun by a club of some of the greatest wits of the +age--Lord Oxford, the Bishop of Rochester, Pope, Congreve, Swift, +Arbuthnot, and others. Gay often held the pen; and Addison liked it very +well, and was not disinclined to come into it."] + +[Footnote 108: accounted for the operation of the meat-jack: from the +paper "To the learned inquisitor into nature, Martinus Scriblerus: the +society of free thinkers greeting." Elwin and Courthope, Pope's works, +vol. ?, p. 332.] + +[Footnote 109: The remainder of the essay endeavors to meet the charge +of materialism. The following is the conclusion:--"In itself it is of +little moment whether we express the phaenomena of matter in terms of +spirit; or the phaenomena of spirit in terms of matter: matter may be +regarded as a form of thought, thought may be regarded as a property of +matter--each statement has a certain relative truth. But with a view to +the progress of science, the materialistic terminology is in every way +to be preferred. For it connects thought with the other phaenomena of +the universe, and suggests inquiry into the nature of those physical +conditions, or concomitants of thought, which are more or less +accessible to us, and a knowledge of which may, in future, help us +to exercise the same kind of control over the world of thought, as +we already possess in respect of the material world; whereas, the +alternative, or spiritualistic, terminology is utterly barren, and leads +to nothing but obscurity and confusion of ideas. + +"Thus there can be little doubt, that the further science advances, the +more extensively and consistently will all the phaenomena of Nature +be represented by materialistic formulae and symbols. But the man of +science, who, forgetting the limits of philosophical inquiry, slides +from these formulae and symbols into what is commonly understood +by materialism, seems to me to place himself on a level with the +mathematician, who should mistake the x's and y's with which he works +his problems, for real entities--and with this further disadvantage, as +compared with the mathematician, that the blunders of the latter are of +no practical consequence, while the errors of systematic materialism may +paralyze the energies and destroy the beauty of a life."] + + + + +ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS (1870) + + +[Footnote 110: On Coral and Coral Reefs: from Critiques and Addresses. +The essay was published in 1870.] + +[Footnote 111: Sic et curalium: Thus also the coral, as soon as it +touches the air turns hard. It was a soft plant under the water.] + +[Footnote 112: Boccone (1633-1704): a noted Sicilian naturalist.] + +[Footnote 113: Marsigli (1658-1730): an Italian soldier and naturalist. +He wrote A Physical History of the Sea.] + +[Footnote 114: "Traite du Corail": "I made the coral bloom in vases full +of sea-water, and I noticed that what we believe to be the flower of +this so-called plant was in reality only an insect similar to a little +nettle or polype. I had the pleasure to see the paws or feet of this +nettle move, and having placed the vase full of water in which the coral +was, near the fire, at a moderate heat, all the little insects expanded, +the nettle stretched out its feet and formed what M. de Marsigli and +I had taken for the petals of the flower. The calyx of this so-called +flower is the very body of the animal issued from its cell."] + +[Footnote 115: Reaumur (1683-1757): a French physiologist and +naturalist, best known as the inventor of the Reaumur thermometer. He +was a member of the French Academy of Science.] + +[Footnote 116: Bishop Wilson: Thomas Wilson (1663-1755), bishop of the +Isle of Man. Details of his life are given in the folio edition of his +works (1782). An appreciation of his religious writings is given by +Matthew Arnold in Culture and Anarchy. Bishop Wilson's words, "To make +reason and the will of God prevail," are the theme of Arnold's essay, +Sweetness and Light.] + +[Footnote 117: An eminent modern writer: Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), +eldest son of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby; a distinguished critic +and poet, and professor of poetry at Oxford. The allusion is to Arnold's +essay, Sweetness and Light. The phrase, "sweetness and light," is +one which Aesop uses in Swift's Battle of the Books to sum up the +superiority of the ancients over the moderns. "As for us, the ancients, +we are content, with the bee, to pretend to nothing of our own beyond +our wings and our voice, that is to say, our flights and our language; +for the rest, whatever we have got has been by infinite labor and +search, and ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is, +that instead of dirt and poison we have rather chose to fill our hives +with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest things, +which are sweetness and light." Arnold's purpose in the essay is +to define the cultured man as one who endeavors to make beauty and +intelligence prevail everywhere.] + +[Footnote 118: Abbe Trembley (1700-1784): a Swiss naturalist. He wrote +"Memoires pour servir a l'histoire d'un genre de polypes d'eau douce, a +bras en forme de cornes."] + +[Footnote 119: Bernard de Jussieu (1699-1776): a French botanist; +founder of the natural classification of plants. He was superintendent +of the Trianon Gardens.] + +[Footnote 120: Guettard (1715-1786): a French naturalist.] + +[Footnote 121: Monte Nuovo within the old crater of Somma: Monte Nuovo, +a mountain west of Naples; Somma, a mountain north of Vesuvius which +with its lofty, semicircular cliff encircles the active cone of +Vesuvius.] + +[Footnote 122: Mauritius: an island in the Indian Ocean; Huxley visited +the island when on the voyage with the Rattlesnake. He wrote to his +mother of his visit: "This island is, you know, the scene of Saint +Pierre's beautiful story of Paul and Virginia, over which I suppose most +people have sentimentalized at one time or another of their lives. +Until we reached here I did not know that the tale was like the lady's +improver--a fiction founded on fact, and that Paul and Virginia were at +one time flesh and blood, and that their veritable dust was buried at +Pamplemousses in a spot considered as one of the lions of the place, and +visited as classic ground."] + +[Footnote 123: Mr. Darwin's coral reefs: The Structure and Distribution +of Coral Reefs, published in 1848.] + +[Footnote 124: Professor Jukes (1811-1869): an English geologist.] + +[Footnote 125: Mr. Dana (1813-1895): a well-known American geologist and +mineralogist; a professor at Yale from 1845. He wrote a number of books +among which is Coral and Coral Reefs.] + +[Footnote 126: Jurassic period: that part of the geological series which +is older than the Cretaceous and newer than the Triassic; so called from +the predominance of rocks of this age in the Jura Mountains. The three +great divisions of fossiliferous rocks are called the Triassic, the +Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.] + + + + +REFERENCE BOOKS + + +The following reference books are suggested for a more complete +treatment of various points in the text:--Andrews' History of England. +Green's Short History of the English People. Traill's Social England. +Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy. Royce's The Spirit of +Modern Philosophy. Huxley's Life and Letters. Smalley's Mr. Huxley, in +Scribner's Magazine for October, 1905. Darwin's Life and Letters. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Autobiography and Selected Essays, by +Thomas Henry Huxley + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1315 *** diff --git a/1315-h/1315-h.htm b/1315-h/1315-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4613125 --- /dev/null +++ b/1315-h/1315-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6811 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Autobiography and Selected Essays, by Thomas Henry Huxley + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1315 ***</div> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED ESSAYS + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + by Thomas Henry Huxley + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h5> + Note: The notes at the end of the book were originally referenced by page + number. I have instead inserted numbers within the text in the format [xx] + and cross-referenced these to the appropriate notes.—D.L. + </h5> + <h4> + Edited, with introduction and notes by Ada L. F. Snell Associate <br /> + Professor Of English Mount Holyoke College<br /> <br /> Riverside College + Classics Copyright 1909 + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> <b>PREFACE</b> </a><br /> <br /> <a + href="#link2H_INTR"> <b>INTRODUCTION</b> </a><br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> I — THE LIFE OF HUXLEY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> II — SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND + STYLE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> III — SUGGESTED STUDIES IN + SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY — + AUTOBIOGRAPHY [1] </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> ON THE + ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE [19] </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0009"> A LIBERAL EDUCATION [49] </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0010"> ON A PIECE OF CHALK [57] </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0011"> THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION [76] </a><br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION [86] + </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE + [92] </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS + [110] </a><br /><br /> <br /> <a href="#link2H_NOTE"> <b>NOTES</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> AUTOBIOGRAPHY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL + KNOWLEDGE (1866) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> A LIBERAL EDUCATION (1868) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> ON A PIECE OF CHALK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION (1882) + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION (1863) + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE (1868) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS (1870) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> REFERENCE BOOKS </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + The purpose of the following selections is to present to students of + English a few of Huxley's representative essays. Some of these selections + are complete; others are extracts. In the latter case, however, they are + not extracts in the sense of being incomplete wholes, for each selection + given will be found to have, in Aristotle's phrase, "a beginning, a + middle, and an end." That they are complete in themselves, although only + parts of whole essays, is due to the fact that Huxley, in order to make + succeeding material clear, often prepares the way with a long and careful + definition. Such is the nature of the extract A Liberal Education, in + reality a definition to make distinct and forcible his ideas on the + shortcomings of English schools. Such a definition, also, is The Method of + Scientific Investigation. + </p> + <p> + The footnotes are those of the author. Other notes on the text have been + included for the benefit of schools inadequately equipped with reference + books. It is hoped, however, that the notes may be found not to be so + numerous as to prevent the training of the student in a self-reliant and + scholarly use of dictionaries and reference books; it is hoped, also, that + they may serve to stimulate him to trace out for himself more completely + any subject connected with the text in which he may feel a peculiar + interest. It should be recognized that notes are of value only as they + develop power to read intelligently. If unintelligently relied upon, they + may even foster indifference and lazy mental habits. + </p> + <p> + I wish to express my obligation to Miss Flora Bridges, whose careful + reading of the manuscript has been most helpful, and to Professor Clara F. + Stevens, the head of the English Department at Mount Holyoke College, + whose very practical aid made this volume possible. + </p> + <p> + A. L. F. S. <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I — THE LIFE OF HUXLEY + </h2> + <p> + Of Huxley's life and of the forces which moulded his thought, the + Autobiography gives some account; but many facts which are significant are + slighted, and necessarily the later events of his life are omitted. To + supplement the story as given by him is the purpose of this sketch. The + facts for this account are gathered entirely from the Life and Letters of + Thomas Henry Huxley, by his son. For a real acquaintance with Huxley, the + student should consult this source for himself; he will count the reading + of the Life and Letters among the rare pleasures which have come to him + through books. + </p> + <p> + Thomas Henry Huxley was born on May 4, 1825. His autobiography gives a + full account of his parents, his early boyhood, and his education. Of + formal education, Huxley had little; but he had the richer schooling which + nature and life give an eager mind. He read widely; he talked often with + older people; he was always investigating the why of things. He kept a + journal in which he noted thoughts gathered from books, and ideas on the + causes of certain phenomena. In this journal he frequently wrote what he + had done and had set himself to do in the way of increasing his knowledge. + Self-conducted, also, was his later education at the Charing Cross + Hospital. Here, like Stevenson in his university days, Huxley seemed to be + idle, but in reality, he was always busy on his own private end. So + constantly did he work over the microscope that the window at which he sat + came to be dubbed by his fellow students "The Sign of the Head and + Microscope." Moreover, in his regular courses at Charing Cross, he seems + to have done work sufficiently notable to be recognized by several prizes + and a gold medal. + </p> + <p> + Of his life after the completion of his medical course, of his search for + work, of his appointment as assistant surgeon on board the Rattlesnake, + and of his scientific work during the four years' cruise, Huxley gives a + vivid description in the autobiography. As a result of his investigations + on this voyage, he published various essays which quickly secured for him + a position in the scientific world as a naturalist of the first rank. A + testimony of the value of this work was his election to membership in the + Royal Society. + </p> + <p> + Although Huxley had now, at the age of twenty-six, won distinction in + science, he soon discovered that it was not so easy to earn bread thereby. + Nevertheless, to earn a living was most important if he were to accomplish + the two objects which he had in view. He wished, in the first place, to + marry Miss Henrietta Heathorn of Sydney, to whom he had become engaged + when on the cruise with the Rattlesnake; his second object was to follow + science as a profession. The struggle to find something connected with + science which would pay was long and bitter; and only a resolute + determination to win kept Huxley from abandoning it altogether. Uniform + ill-luck met him everywhere. He has told in his autobiography of his + troubles with the Admiralty in the endeavor to get his papers published, + and of his failure there. He applied for a position to teach science in + Toronto; being unsuccessful in this attempt, he applied successively for + various professorships in the United Kingdom, and in this he was likewise + unsuccessful. Some of his friends urged him to hold out, but others + thought the fight an unequal one, and advised him to emigrate to + Australia. He himself was tempted to practice medicine in Sydney; but to + give up his purpose seemed to him like cowardice. On the other hand, to + prolong the struggle indefinitely when he might quickly earn a living in + other ways seemed like selfishness and an injustice to the woman to whom + he had been for a long time engaged. Miss Heathorn, however, upheld him in + his determination to pursue science; and his sister also, he writes, + cheered him by her advice and encouragement to persist in the struggle. + Something of the man's heroic temper may be gathered from a letter which + he wrote to Miss Heathorn when his affairs were darkest. "However painful + our separation may be," he says, "the spectacle of a man who had given up + the cherished purpose of his life . . . would, before long years were over + our heads, be infinitely more painful." He declares that he is hemmed in + by all sorts of difficulties. "Nevertheless the path has shown itself a + fair one, neither more difficult nor less so than most paths in life in + which a man of energy may hope to do much if he believes in himself, and + is at peace within." Thus relieved in mind, he makes his decision in spite + of adverse fate. "My course of life is taken, I will not leave London—I + WILL make myself a name and a position as well as an income by some kind + of pursuit connected with science which is the thing for which Nature has + fitted me if she has ever fitted any one for anything." + </p> + <p> + But suddenly the long wait, the faith in self, were justified, and the + turning point came. "There is always a Cape Horn in one's life that one + either weathers or wrecks one's self on," he writes to his sister. "Thank + God, I think I may say I have weathered mine—not without a good deal + of damage to spars and rigging though, for it blew deuced hard on the + other side." In 1854 a permanent lectureship was offered him at the + Government School of Mines; also, a lectureship at St. Thomas' Hospital; + and he was asked to give various other lecture courses. He thus found + himself able to establish the home for which he had waited eight years. In + July, 1855, he was married to Miss Heathorn. + </p> + <p> + The succeeding years from 1855 to 1860 were filled with various kinds of + work connected with science: original investigation, printing of + monographs, and establishing of natural history museums. His advice + concerning local museums is interesting and characteristically expressed. + "It [the local museum if properly arranged] will tell both natives and + strangers exactly what they want to know, and possess great scientific + interest and importance. Whereas the ordinary lumber-room of clubs from + New Zealand, Hindu idols, sharks' teeth, mangy monkeys, scorpions, and + conch shells—who shall describe the weary inutility of it? It is + really worse than nothing, because it leads the unwary to look for objects + of science elsewhere than under their noses. What they want to know is + that their 'America is here,' as Wilhelm Meister has it." During this + period, also, he began his lectures to workingmen, calling them Peoples' + Lectures. "POPULAR lectures," he said, "I hold to be an abomination unto + the Lord." Working-men attended these lectures in great numbers, and to + them Huxley seemed to be always able to speak at his best. His purpose in + giving these lectures should be expressed in his own words: "I want the + working class to understand that Science and her ways are great facts for + them—that physical virtue is the base of all other, and that they + are to be clean and temperate and all the rest—not because fellows + in black and white ties tell them so, but because there are plain and + patent laws which they must obey 'under penalties.'" + </p> + <p> + Toward the close of 1859, Darwin's "Origin of Species" was published. It + raised a great outcry in England; and Huxley immediately came forward as + chief defender of the faith therein set forth. He took part in debates on + this subject, the most famous of which was the one between himself and + Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford. The Bishop concluded his speech by turning + to Huxley and asking, "Was it through his grandfather or grandmother that + he claimed descent from a monkey?" Huxley, as is reported by an + eye-witness, "slowly and deliberately arose. A slight tall figure, stern + and pale, very quiet and grave, he stood before us and spoke those + tremendous words. . . . He was not ashamed to have a monkey for an + ancestor; but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used + great gifts to obscure the truth." Another story indicates the temper of + that time. Carlyle, whose writing had strongly influenced Huxley, and whom + Huxley had come to know, could not forgive him for his attitude toward + evolution. One day, years after the publication of Man's Place in Nature, + Huxley, seeing Carlyle on the other side of the street, a broken, pathetic + figure, walked over and spoke to him. The old man merely remarked, "You're + Huxley, aren't you? the man that says we are all descended from monkeys," + and passed on. Huxley, however, saw nothing degrading to man's dignity in + the theory of evolution. In a wonderfully fine sentence he gives his own + estimate of the theory as it affects man's future on earth. "Thoughtful + men once escaped from the blinding influences of traditional prejudices, + will find in the lowly stock whence man has sprung the best evidence of + the splendour of his capacities; and will discover, in his long progress + through the past, a reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a + nobler future." As a result of all these controversies on The Origin of + Species and of investigations to uphold Darwin's theory, Huxley wrote his + first book, already mentioned, Man's Place in Nature. + </p> + <p> + To read a list of the various kinds of work which Huxley was doing from + 1870 to 1875 is to be convinced of his abundant energy and many interests. + At about this time Huxley executed the plan which he had had in mind for a + long time, the establishment of laboratories for the use of students. His + object was to furnish a more exact preliminary training. He complains that + the student who enters the medical school is "so habituated to learn only + from books, or oral teaching, that the attempt to learn from things and to + get his knowledge at first hand is something new and strange." To make + this method of teaching successful in the schools, Huxley gave practical + instruction in laboratory work to school-masters. + </p> + <p> + "If I am to be remembered at all," Huxley once wrote, "I would rather it + should be as a man who did his best to help the people than by any other + title." Certainly as much of his time as could be spared from his regular + work was given to help others. His lectures to workingmen and + school-masters have already been mentioned. In addition, he lectured to + women on physiology and to children on elementary science. In order to be + of greater service to the children, Huxley, in spite of delicate health, + became a member of the London School Board. His immediate object was "to + temper book-learning with something of the direct knowledge of Nature." + His other purposes were to secure a better physical training for children + and to give them a clearer understanding of social and moral law. He did + not believe, on the one hand, in overcrowding the curriculum, but, on the + other hand, he "felt that all education should be thrown open to all that + each man might know to what state in life he was called." Another + statement of his purpose and beliefs is given by Professor Gladstone, who + says of his work on the board: "He resented the idea that schools were to + train either congregations for churches or hands for factories. He was on + the Board as a friend of children. What he sought to do for the child was + for the child's sake, that it might live a fuller, truer, worthier life." + </p> + <p> + The immense amount of work which Huxley did in these years told very + seriously on his naturally weak constitution. It became necessary for him + finally for two successive years to stop work altogether. In 1872 he went + to the Mediterranean and to Egypt. This was a holiday full of interest for + a man like Huxley who looked upon the history of the world and man's place + in the world with a keen scientific mind. Added to this scientific bent of + mind, moreover, Huxley had a deep appreciation for the picturesque in + nature and life. Bits of description indicate his enjoyment in this + vacation. He writes of his entrance to the Mediterranean, "It was a lovely + morning, and nothing could be grander than Ape Hill on one side and the + Rock on the other, looking like great lions or sphinxes on each side of a + gateway." In Cairo, Huxley found much to interest him in archaeology, + geology, and the every-day life of the streets. At the end of a month, he + writes that he is very well and very grateful to Old Nile for all that he + has done for him, not the least "for a whole universe of new thoughts and + pictures of life." The trip, however, did no lasting good. In 1873 Huxley + was again very ill, but was under such heavy costs at this time that + another vacation was impossible. At this moment, a critical one in his + life, some of his close scientific friends placed to his credit twenty-one + hundred pounds to enable him to take the much needed rest. Darwin wrote to + Huxley concerning the gift: "In doing this we are convinced that we act + for the public interest." He assured Huxley that the friends who gave this + felt toward him as a brother. "I am sure that you will return this feeling + and will therefore be glad to give us the opportunity of aiding you in + some degree, as this will be a happiness to us to the last day of our + lives." The gift made it possible for Huxley to take another long + vacation, part of which was spent with Sir Joseph Hooker, a noted English + botanist, visiting the volcanoes of Auvergne. After this trip he steadily + improved in health, with no other serious illness for ten years. + </p> + <p> + In 1876 Huxley was invited to visit America and to deliver the inaugural + address at Johns Hopkins University. In July of this year accordingly, in + company with his wife, he crossed to New York. Everywhere Huxley was + received with enthusiasm, for his name was a very familiar one. Two + quotations from his address at Johns Hopkins are especially worthy of + attention as a part of his message to Americans. "It has been my fate to + see great educational funds fossilise into mere bricks and mortar in the + petrifying springs of architecture, with nothing left to work them. A + great warrior is said to have made a desert and called it peace. Trustees + have sometimes made a palace and called it a university." + </p> + <p> + The second quotation is as follows:— + </p> + <p> + I cannot say that I am in the slightest degree impressed by your bigness + or your material resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, territory does + not make a nation. The great issue, about which hangs true sublimity, and + the terror of overhanging fate, is, what are you going to do with all + these things? . . . + </p> + <p> + The one condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral worth and + intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot give + these, but it can cherish them and bring them to the front in whatever + station of society they are to be found, and the universities ought to be, + and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the nation. + </p> + <p> + After the return from America, the same innumerable occupations were + continued. It would be impossible in short space even to enumerate all + Huxley's various publications of the next ten years. His work, however, + changed gradually from scientific investigation to administrative work, + not the least important of which was the office of Inspector of Fisheries. + A second important office was the Presidency of the Royal Society. Of the + work of this society Sir Joseph Hooker writes: "The duties of the office + are manifold and heavy; they include attendance at all the meetings of the + Fellows, and of the councils, committees, and sub-committees of the + Society, and especially the supervision of the printing and illustrating + all papers on biological subjects that are published in the Society's + Transactions and Proceedings; the latter often involving a protracted + correspondence with the authors. To this must be added a share in the + supervision of the staff officers, of the library and correspondence, and + the details of house-keeping." All the work connected with this and many + other offices bespeaks a life too hard-driven and accounts fully for the + continued ill-health which finally resulted in a complete break-down. + </p> + <p> + Huxley had always advocated that the age of sixty was the time for + "official death," and had looked forward to a peaceful "Indian summer." + With this object in mind and troubled by increasing ill-health, he began + in 1885 to give up his work. But to live even in comparative idleness, + after so many years of activity, was difficult. "I am sure," he says, + "that the habit of incessant work into which we all drift is as bad in its + way as dram-drinking. In time you cannot be comfortable without stimulus." + But continued bodily weakness told upon him to the extent that all work + became distasteful. An utter weariness with frequent spells of the blues + took possession of him; and the story of his life for some years is the + story of the long pursuit of health in England, Switzerland, and + especially in Italy. + </p> + <p> + Although Huxley was wretchedly ill during this period, he wrote letters + which are good to read for their humor and for their pictures of foreign + cities. Rome he writes of as an idle, afternoony sort of place from which + it is difficult to depart. He worked as eagerly over the historic remains + in Rome as he would over a collection of geological specimens. "I begin to + understand Old Rome pretty well and I am quite learned in the Catacombs, + which suit me, as a kind of Christian fossils out of which one can + reconstruct the body of the primitive Church." Florence, for a man with a + conscience and ill-health, had too many picture galleries. "They are a + sore burden to the conscience if you don't go to see them, and an awful + trial to the back and legs if you do," he complained. He found Florence, + nevertheless, a lovely place and full of most interesting things to see + and do. His letters with reference to himself also are vigorously and + entertainingly expressed. He writes in a characteristic way of his growing + difficulty with his hearing. "It irritates me not to hear; it irritates me + still more to be spoken to as if I were deaf, and the absurdity of being + irritated on the last ground irritates me still more." And again he writes + in a more hopeful strain, "With fresh air and exercise and careful + avoidance of cold and night air I am to be all right again." He then adds: + "I am not fond of coddling; but as Paddy gave his pig the best corner in + his cabin—because 'shure, he paid the rint'—I feel bound to + take care of myself as a household animal of value, to say nothing of + other points." + </p> + <p> + Although he was never strong after this long illness, Huxley began in 1889 + to be much better. The first sign of returning vigor was the eagerness + with which he entered into a controversy with Gladstone. Huxley had always + enjoyed a mental battle; and some of his fiercest tilts were with + Gladstone. He even found the cause of better health in this controversy, + and was grateful to the "Grand Old Man" for making home happy for him. + From this time to his death, Huxley wrote a number of articles on + politics, science, and religion, many of which were published in the + volume called Controverted Questions. The main value of these essays lies + in the fact that Huxley calls upon men to give clear reasons for the faith + which they claim as theirs, and makes, as a friend wrote of him, hazy + thinking and slovenly, half-formed conclusions seem the base thing they + really are. + </p> + <p> + The last years of Huxley's life were indeed the longed-for Indian summer. + Away from the noise of London at Eastbourne by the sea, he spent many + happy hours with old-time friends and in his garden, which was a great joy + to him. His large family of sons and daughters and grandchildren brought + much cheer to his last days. Almost to the end he was working and writing + for publication. Three days before his death he wrote to his old friend, + Hooker, that he didn't feel at all like "sending in his checks" and hoped + to recover. He died very quietly on June 29, 1895. That he met death with + the same calm faith and strength with which he had met life is indicated + by the lines which his wife wrote and which he requested to be his + epitaph:— + </p> + <p> + Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep; For still He giveth His + beloved sleep, And if an endless sleep He wills, so best. + </p> + <p> + To attempt an analysis of Huxley's character, unique and bafflingly + complex as it is, is beyond the scope of this sketch; but to give only the + mere facts of his life is to do an injustice to the vivid personality of + the man as it is revealed in his letters. All his human interest in people + and things—pets, and flowers, and family—brightens many pages + of the two ponderous volumes. Now one reads of his grief over some + backward-going plant, or over some garden tragedy, as "A lovely clematis + in full flower, which I had spent hours in nailing up, has just died + suddenly. I am more inconsolable than Jonah!" Now one is amused with a + nonsense letter to one of his children, and again with an account of a + pet. "I wish you would write seriously to M——. She is not + behaving well to Oliver. I have seen handsomer kittens, but few more + lively, and energetically destructive. Just now he scratched away at + something M—— says cost 13s. 6d. a yard and reduced more or + less of it to combings. M—— therefore excludes him from the + dining-room and all those opportunities of higher education which he would + have in MY house." Frequently one finds a description of some event, so + vividly done that the mere reading of it seems like a real experience. An + account of Tennyson's burial in Westminster is a typical bit of + description:— + </p> + <p> + Bright sunshine streamed through the windows of the nave, while the choir + was in half gloom, and as each shaft of light illuminated the + flower-covered bier as it slowly travelled on, one thought of the bright + succession of his works between the darkness before and the darkness + after. I am glad to say that the Royal Society was represented by four of + its chief officers, and nine of the commonalty, including myself. Tennyson + has a right to that, as the first poet since Lucretius who has understood + the drift of science. + </p> + <p> + No parts of the Life and Letters are more enjoyable than those concerning + the "Happy Family," as a friend of Huxley's names his household. His + family of seven children found their father a most engaging friend and + companion. He could tell them wonderful sea stories and animal stories and + could draw fascinating pictures. His son writes of how when he was ill + with scarlet fever he used to look forward to his father's home-coming. + "The solitary days—for I was the first victim in the family—were + very long, and I looked forward with intense interest to one half-hour + after dinner, when he would come up and draw scenes from the history of a + remarkable bull-terrier and his family that went to the seaside in a most + human and child-delighting manner. I have seldom suffered a greater + disappointment than when, one evening, I fell asleep just before this + fairy half-hour, and lost it out of my life." + </p> + <p> + The account of the comradeship between Huxley and his wife reads like a + good old-time romance. He was attracted to her at first by her "simplicity + and directness united with an unusual degree of cultivation," Huxley's son + writes. On her he depended for advice in his work, and for companionship + at home and abroad when wandering in search of health in Italy and + Switzerland. When he had been separated from her for some time, he wrote, + "Nobody, children or anyone else, can be to me what you are. Ulysses + preferred his old woman to immortality, and this absence has led me to see + that he was as wise in that as in other things." Again he writes, "Against + all trouble (and I have had my share) I weigh a wife-comrade 'trew and + fest' in all emergencies." + </p> + <p> + The letters also give one a clear idea of the breadth of Huxley's + interests, particularly of his appreciation of the various forms of art. + Huxley believed strongly in the arts as a refining and helpful influence + in education. He keenly enjoyed good music. Professor Hewes writes of him + that one breaking in upon him in the afternoon at South Kensington would + not infrequently be met "with a snatch of some melody of Bach's fugue." He + also liked good pictures, and always had among his friends well-known + artists, as Alma-Tadema, Sir Frederick Leighton, and Burne-Jones. He read + poetry widely, and strongly advocated the teaching of poetry in English + schools. As to poetry, his own preferences are interesting. Wordsworth he + considered too discursive; Shelley was too diffuse; Keats, he liked for + pure beauty, Browning for strength, and Tennyson for his understanding of + modern science; but most frequently of all he read Milton and Shakespeare. + </p> + <p> + As to Huxley's appearance, and as to the impression which his personality + made upon others, the description of a friend, Mr. G. W. Smalley, presents + him with striking force. "The square forehead, the square jaw, the tense + lines of the mouth, the deep flashing dark eyes, the impression of + something more than strength he gave you, an impression of sincerity, of + solid force, of immovability, yet with the gentleness arising from the + serene consciousness of his strength—all this belonged to Huxley and + to him alone. The first glance magnetized his audience. The eyes were + those of one accustomed to command, of one having authority, and not + fearing on occasion to use it. The hair swept carelessly away from the + broad forehead and grew rather long behind, yet the length did not + suggest, as it often does, effeminacy. He was masculine in everything—look, + gesture, speech. Sparing of gesture, sparing of emphasis, careless of mere + rhetorical or oratorical art, he had nevertheless the secret of the + highest art of all, whether in oratory or whatever else—he had + simplicity." + </p> + <p> + Simplicity, directness, sincerity,—all these qualities describe + Huxley; but the one attribute which distinguishes him above all others is + love of truth. A love of truth, as the phrase characterizes Huxley, would + necessarily produce a scholarly habit of mind. It was the zealous search + for truth which determined his method of work. In science, Huxley would + "take at second hand nothing for which he vouched in teaching." Some one + reproached him for wasting time verifying what another had already done. + "If that is his practice," he commented, "his work will never live." The + same motive made him a master of languages. To be able to read at first + hand the writings of other nations, he learned German, French, Italian, + and Greek. One of the chief reasons for learning to read Greek was to see + for himself if Aristotle really did say that the heart had only three + chambers—an error, he discovered, not of Aristotle, but of the + translator. It was, moreover, the scholar in Huxley which made him + impatient of narrow, half-formed, foggy conclusions. His own work has all + the breadth and freedom and universality of the scholar, but it has, also, + a quality equally distinctive of the scholar, namely, an infinite + precision in the matter of detail. + </p> + <p> + If love of truth made Huxley a scholar, it made him, also, a courageous + fighter. Man's first duty, as he saw it, was to seek the truth; his second + was to teach it to others, and, if necessary, to contend valiantly for it. + To fail to teach what you honestly know to be true, because it may harm + your reputation, or even because it may give pain to others, is cowardice. + "I am not greatly concerned about any reputation," Huxley writes to his + wife, "except that of being entirely honest and straightforward." + Regardless of warnings that the publication of Man's Place in Nature would + ruin his career, Huxley passed on to others what nature had revealed to + him. He was regardless, also, of the confusion and pain which his view + would necessarily bring to those who had been nourished in old traditions. + To stand with a man or two and to do battle with the world on the score of + its old beliefs, has never been an easy task since the world began. + Certainly it required fearlessness and determination to wrestle with the + prejudices against science in the middle of the nineteenth century—how + much may be gathered from the reading of Darwin's Life and Letters. The + attitude of the times toward science has already been indicated. One may + be allowed to give one more example from the reported address of a + clergyman. "O ye men of science, ye men of science, leave us our ancestors + in paradise, and you may have yours in Zoological gardens." The war was, + for the most part, between the clergy and the men of science, but it is + necessary to remember that Huxley fought not against Christianity, but + against dogma; that he fought not against the past,—he had great + reverence for the accomplishment of the past,—but against + unwillingness to accept the new truth of the present. + </p> + <p> + A scholar of the highest type and a fearless defender of true and honest + thinking, Huxley certainly was: but the quality which gives meaning to his + work, which makes it live, is a certain human quality due to the fact that + Huxley was always keenly alive to the relation of science to the problems + of life. For this reason, he was not content with the mere acquirement of + knowledge; and for this reason, also, he could not quietly wait until the + world should come to his way of thinking. Much of the time, therefore, + which he would otherwise naturally have spent in research, he spent in + contending for and in endeavoring to popularize the facts of science. It + was this desire to make his ideas prevail that led Huxley to work for a + mastery of the technique of speaking and writing. He hated both, but + taught himself to do both well. The end of all his infinite pains about + his writing was not because style for its own sake is worth while, but + because he saw that the only way to win men to a consideration of his + message was to make it perfectly clear and attractive to them. Huxley's + message to the people was that happiness, usefulness, and even material + prosperity depend upon an understanding of the laws of nature. He also + taught that a knowledge of the facts of science is the soundest basis for + moral law; that a clear sense of the penalties which Nature inflicts for + disobedience of her laws must eventually be the greatest force for the + purification of life. If he was to be remembered, therefore, he desired + that he should be remembered primarily as one who had helped the people + "to think truly and to live rightly." Huxley's writing is, then, something + more than a scholarly exposition of abstruse matter; for it has been + further devoted to the increasing of man's capacity for usefulness, and to + the betterment of his life here on earth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II — SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + </h2> + <p> + From the point of view of subject-matter, structure, and style, Huxley's + essays are admirably adapted to the uses of the student in English. The + themes of the essays are two, education and science. In these two subjects + Huxley earnestly sought to arouse interest and to impart knowledge, + because he believed that intelligence in these matters is essential for + the advancement of the race in strength and morality. Both subjects, + therefore, should be valuable to the student. In education, certainly, he + should be interested, since it is his main occupation, if not his chief + concern. Essays like A Liberal Education and The Principal Subjects of + Education may suggest to him the meaning of all his work, and may suggest, + also, the things which it would be well for him to know; and, even more, a + consideration of these subjects may arouse him to a greater interest and + responsibility than he usually assumes toward his own mental equipment. Of + greater interest probably will be the subjects which deal with nature; for + the ways of nature are more nearly within the range of his real concerns + than are the wherefores of study. The story of the formation of a piece of + chalk, the substance which lies at the basis of all life, the habits of + sea animals, are all subjects the nature of which is akin to his own eager + interest in the world. + </p> + <p> + Undoubtedly the subjects about which Huxley writes will "appeal" to the + student; but it is in analysis that the real discipline lies. For analysis + Huxley's essays are excellent. They illustrate "the clear power of + exposition," and such power is, as Huxley wrote to Tyndall, the one + quality the people want,—exposition "so clear that they may think + they understand even if they don't." Huxley obtains that perfect clearness + in his own work by simple definition, by keeping steadily before his + audience his intention, and by making plain throughout his lecture a + well-defined organic structure. No X-ray machine is needful to make the + skeleton visible; it stands forth with the parts all nicely related and + compactly joined. In reference to structure, his son and biographer + writes, "He loved to visualize his object clearly. The framework of what + he wished to say would always be drawn out first." Professor Ray Lankester + also mentions Huxley's love of form. "He deals with form not only as a + mechanical engineer IN PARTIBUS (Huxley's own description of himself), but + also as an artist, a born lover of form, a character which others + recognize in him though he does not himself set it down in his analysis." + Huxley's own account of his efforts to shape his work is suggestive. "The + fact is that I have a great love and respect for my native tongue, and + take great pains to use it properly. Sometimes I write essays half-a-dozen + times before I can get them into proper shape; and I believe I become more + fastidious as I grow older." And, indeed, there is a marked difference in + firmness of structure between the earlier essays, such as On the + Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences, written, as Huxley + acknowledges, in great haste, and the later essays, such as A Liberal + Education and The Method of Scientific Investigation. To trace and to + define this difference will be most helpful to the student who is building + up a knowledge of structure for his own use. + </p> + <p> + According to Huxley's biographer in the Life and Letters of Thomas Henry + Huxley, the essays which represent him at his best are those published in + 1868. They are A Piece of Chalk, A Liberal Education, and On the Physical + Basis of Life. In connection with the comment on these essays is the + following quotation which gives one interesting information as to Huxley's + method of obtaining a clear style:— + </p> + <p> + This lecture on A Piece of Chalk together with two others delivered this + year, seems to me to mark the maturing of his style into that mastery of + clear expression for which he deliberately labored, the saying exactly + what he meant, neither too much nor too little, without confusion and + without obscurity. Have something to say, and say it, was the Duke of + Wellington's theory of style; Huxley's was to say that which has to be + said in such language that you can stand cross-examination on each word. + Be clear, though you may be convicted of error. If you are clearly wrong, + you will run up against a fact sometime and get set right. If you shuffle + with your subject, and study chiefly to use language which will give a + loophole of escape either way, there is no hope for you. + </p> + <p> + This was the secret of his lucidity. In no one could Buffon's aphorism on + style find a better illustration, Le style c'est l'homme meme. In him + science and literature, too often divorced, were closely united; and + literature owes him a debt for importing into it so much of the highest + scientific habit of mind; for showing that truthfulness need not be bald, + and that real power lies more in exact accuracy than in luxuriance of + diction. + </p> + <p> + Huxley's own theory as to how clearness is to be obtained gets at the root + of the matter. "For my part, I venture to doubt the wisdom of attempting + to mould one's style by any other process than that of striving after the + clear and forcible expression of definite conceptions; in which process + the Glassian precept, first catch your definite conception, is probably + the most difficult to obey." + </p> + <p> + Perfect clearness, above every other quality of style, certainly is + characteristic of Huxley; but clearness alone does not make subject-matter + literature. In addition to this quality, Huxley's writing wins the reader + by the racy diction, the homely illustration, the plain, honest phrasing. + All these and other qualities bring one into an intimate relationship with + his subject. A man of vast technical learning, he is still so interested + in the relation of his facts to the problems of men that he is always able + to infuse life into the driest of subjects, in other words, to HUMANIZE + his knowledge; and in the estimation of Matthew Arnold, this is the true + work of the scholar, the highest mission of style. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III — SUGGESTED STUDIES IN SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + </h2> + <p> + Although fully realizing that the questions here given are only such as + are generally used everywhere by instructors in English, the editor has, + nevertheless, included them with the hope that some one may find them + helpful. + </p> + <p> + The studies given include a few general questions and suggestions on + subject-matter, structure, and style. The questions on structure are based + on an analysis of the whole composition and of the paragraph; those on + style are based on a study of sentences and words. Such a division of + material may seem unwarranted; for, it may be urged, firmness of structure + depends, to a certain extent, upon sentence-form and words; and clearness + of style, to a large extent, upon the form of the paragraph and whole + composition. The two, certainly, cannot be in justice separated; and + especially is it true, more deeply true than the average student can be + brought to believe, that structure, "MIND, in style" as Pater phrases it, + primarily determines not only clearness, but also such qualities of style + as reserve, refinement, and simple Doric beauty. Since, however, structure + is more obviously associated with the larger groups, and style with the + smaller, the questions have been arranged according to this division. + </p> + <p> + I. Suggestions for the Study of Subject-Matter. + </p> + <p> + 1. To whom does Huxley address the essay? + </p> + <p> + 2. Can you see any adaptation of his material to his audience? + </p> + <p> + 3. How would A Piece of Chalk be differently presented if given before a + science club? + </p> + <p> + 4. Does Huxley make his subject interesting? If so, how does he accomplish + this? + </p> + <p> + 5. Is the personality of Huxley suggested by the essays? See Life and + Letters, vol. ii, p. 293. + </p> + <p> + II. Suggestions for the Study of Structure. + </p> + <p> + A. Analysis of the whole composition. + </p> + <p> + 1. State in one complete sentence the theme of the essay. + </p> + <p> + 2. Analyze the essay for the logical development of the thought. + </p> + <p> + a. Questions on the Introduction. + </p> + <p> + In the introduction, how does the author approach his material? + </p> + <p> + Does he give the main points of the essay? + </p> + <p> + Does he give his reasons for writing? + </p> + <p> + Does he narrow his subject to one point of view? + </p> + <p> + Is the introduction a digression? + </p> + <p> + b. Questions on the Body. + </p> + <p> + Can you find large groups of thought? + </p> + <p> + Are these groups closely related to the theme and to each other? + </p> + <p> + Do you find any digressions? + </p> + <p> + Is the method used in developing the groups inductive or deductive? + </p> + <p> + Is the method different in different groups? + </p> + <p> + Are the groups arranged for good emphasis in the whole composition? + </p> + <p> + c. Questions on the Conclusion. + </p> + <p> + How does the author conclude the essay? + </p> + <p> + Does the conclusion sum up the points of the essay? + </p> + <p> + Are any new points suggested? + </p> + <p> + Is the thought of the whole essay stated? + </p> + <p> + Do you consider it a strong conclusion? + </p> + <p> + 3. Make out an outline which shall picture the skeleton of the essay + studied. In making the outline express the topics in the form of complete + statements, phrase the thought for clear sequence, and be careful about + such matters as spacing and punctuation. + </p> + <p> + B. Analysis of paragraph structure. + </p> + <p> + 1. Can a paragraph be analyzed in the same manner as the whole + composition? + </p> + <p> + 2. Can you express the thought of each paragraph in a complete sentence? + </p> + <p> + 3. Can you find different points presented in the paragraph developing the + paragraph topic, as the large groups of the whole composition develop the + theme? + </p> + <p> + 4. Are the paragraphs closely related, and how are they bound together? + </p> + <p> + 5. Can any of the paragraphs be combined to advantage? + </p> + <p> + 6. Read from Barrett Wendell's English Composition the chapter on + paragraphs. Are Huxley's paragraphs constructed in accordance with the + principles given in this chapter? + </p> + <p> + 7. Is the paragraph type varied? For paragraph types, see Scott and + Denny's Paragraph Writing. + </p> + <p> + C. Comparative study of the structure of the essay. + </p> + <p> + 1. Do you find any difference between Huxley's earlier and later essays as + regards the structure of the whole, or the structure of the paragraph? + </p> + <p> + 2. Which essay seems to you to be most successful in structure? + </p> + <p> + 3. Has the character of the audience any influence upon the structure of + the essays? + </p> + <p> + 4. Compare the structure of one of Huxley's essays with that of some other + essay recently studied. + </p> + <p> + 5. Has the nature of the material any influence upon the structure of the + essay? + </p> + <p> + III. Suggestions for the Study of Style. + </p> + <p> + A. Exactly what do you mean by style? + </p> + <p> + B. Questions on sentence structure. + </p> + <p> + 1. From any given essay, group together sentences which are long, short, + loose, periodic, balanced, simple, compound; note those peculiar, for any + reason, to Huxley. + </p> + <p> + 2. Stevenson says, "The one rule is to be infinitely various; to interest, + to disappoint, to surprise and still to gratify; to be ever changing, as + it were, the stitch, and yet still to give the effect of ingenious + neatness." + </p> + <p> + Do Huxley's sentences conform to Stevenson's rule? Compare Huxley's + sentences with Stevenson's for variety in form. Is there any reason for + the difference between the form of the two writers? + </p> + <p> + 3. Does this quotation from Pater's essay on Style describe Huxley's + sentences? "The blithe, crisp sentence, decisive as a child's expression + of its needs, may alternate with the long-contending, victoriously + intricate sentence; the sentence, born with the integrity of a single + word, relieving the sort of sentence in which, if you look closely, you + can see contrivance, much adjustment, to bring a highly qualified matter + into compass at one view." + </p> + <p> + 4. How do Huxley's sentences compare with those of Ruskin, or with those + of any author recently studied? + </p> + <p> + 5. Are Huxley's sentences musical? How does an author make his sentences + musical? + </p> + <p> + C. Questions on words. + </p> + <p> + 1. Do you find evidence of exactness, a quality which Huxley said he + labored for? + </p> + <p> + 2. Are the words general or specific in character? + </p> + <p> + 3. How does Huxley make his subject-matter attractive? + </p> + <p> + 4. From what sources does Huxley derive his words? Are they every-day + words, or more scholarly in character? + </p> + <p> + 5. Do you find any figures? Are these mainly ornamental or do they + re-enforce the thought? + </p> + <p> + 8. Are there many allusions and quotations? Can you easily recognize the + source? + </p> + <p> + 7. Pater says in his essay on Style that the literary artist "begets a + vocabulary faithful to the colouring of his own spirit, and in the + strictest sense original." Do you find that Huxley's vocabulary suggests + the man? + </p> + <p> + 8. Does Huxley seem to search for "the smooth, or winsome, or forcible + word, as such, or quite simply and honestly, for the word's adjustment to + its meaning"? + </p> + <p> + 9. Make out a list of the words and proper names in any given essay which + are not familiar to you; write out the explanation of these in the form of + notes giving any information which is interesting and relevant. + </p> + <p> + D. General questions on style. + </p> + <p> + 1. How is Huxley's style adapted to the subject-matter? + </p> + <p> + 2. Can you explain the difference in style of the different essays by the + difference in purpose? + </p> + <p> + 3. Compare Huxley's way of saying things with some other author's way of + saying things. + </p> + <p> + 4. Huxley says of his essays to workingmen, "I only wish I had had the + sense to anticipate the run these have had here and abroad, and I would + have revised them properly. As they stand they are terribly in the rough, + from a literary point of view." + </p> + <p> + Do you find evidences of roughness? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY — AUTOBIOGRAPHY <a href="#linknote-1" + name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + And when I consider, in one view, the many things . . . which I have upon + my hands, I feel the burlesque of being employed in this manner at my time + of life. But, in another view, and taking in all circumstances, these + things, as trifling as they may appear, no less than things of greater + importance, seem to be put upon me to do.—Bishop Butler to the + Duchess of Somerset. + </p> + <p> + The "many things" to which the Duchess's correspondent here refers are the + repairs and improvements of the episcopal seat at Auckland. I doubt if the + great apologist, greater in nothing than in the simple dignity of his + character, would have considered the writing an account of himself as a + thing which could be put upon him to do whatever circumstances might be + taken in. But the good bishop lived in an age when a man might write books + and yet be permitted to keep his private existence to himself; in the + pre-Boswellian <a href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2" + id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> epoch, when the germ of the + photographer lay concealed in the distant future, and the interviewer who + pervades our age was an unforeseen, indeed unimaginable, birth of time. + </p> + <p> + At present, the most convinced believer in the aphorism "Bene qui latuit, + bene vixit,"<a href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3" id="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a> + is not always able to act up to it. An importunate person informs him that + his portrait is about to be published and will be accompanied by a + biography which the importunate person proposes to write. The sufferer + knows what that means; either he undertakes to revise the "biography" or + he does not. In the former case, he makes himself responsible; in the + latter, he allows the publication of a mass of more or less fulsome + inaccuracies for which he will be held responsible by those who are + familiar with the prevalent art of self-advertisement. On the whole, it + may be better to get over the "burlesque of being employed in this manner" + and do the thing himself. + </p> + <p> + It was by reflections of this kind that, some years ago, I was led to + write and permit the publication of the subjoined sketch. + </p> + <p> + I was born about eight o'clock in the morning on the 4th of May, 1825, at + Ealing, which was, at that time, as quiet a little country village as + could be found within a half-a-dozen miles of Hyde Park Corner. Now it is + a suburb of London with, I believe, 30,000 inhabitants. My father was one + of the masters in a large semi-public school which at one time had a high + reputation. I am not aware that any portents preceded my arrival in this + world, but, in my childhood, I remember hearing a traditional account of + the manner in which I lost the chance of an endowment of great practical + value. The windows of my mother's room were open, in consequence of the + unusual warmth of the weather. For the same reason, probably, a + neighbouring beehive had swarmed, and the new colony, pitching on the + window-sill, was making its way into the room when the horrified nurse + shut down the sash. If that well-meaning woman had only abstained from her + ill-timed interference, the swarm might have settled on my lips, and I + should have been endowed with that mellifluous eloquence which, in this + country, leads far more surely than worth, capacity, or honest work, to + the highest places in Church and State. But the opportunity was lost, and + I have been obliged to content myself through life with saying what I mean + in the plainest of plain language, than which, I suppose, there is no + habit more ruinous to a man's prospects of advancement. + </p> + <p> + Why I was christened Thomas Henry I do not know; but it is a curious + chance that my parents should have fixed for my usual denomination upon + the name of that particular Apostle with whom I have always felt most + sympathy. Physically and mentally I am the son of my mother so completely—even + down to peculiar movements of the hands, which made their appearance in me + as I reached the age she had when I noticed them—that I can hardly + find any trace of my father in myself, except an inborn faculty for + drawing, which unfortunately, in my case, has never been cultivated, a hot + temper, and that amount of tenacity of purpose which unfriendly observers + sometimes call obstinacy. + </p> + <p> + My mother was a slender brunette, of an emotional and energetic + temperament, and possessed of the most piercing black eyes I ever saw in a + woman's head. With no more education than other women of the middle + classes in her day, she had an excellent mental capacity. Her most + distinguishing characteristic, however, was rapidity of thought. If one + ventured to suggest she had not taken much time to arrive at any + conclusion, she would say, "I cannot help it, things flash across me." + That peculiarity has been passed on to me in full strength; it has often + stood me in good stead; it has sometimes played me sad tricks, and it has + always been a danger. But, after all, if my time were to come over again, + there is nothing I would less willingly part with than my inheritance of + mother wit. + </p> + <p> + I have next to nothing to say about my childhood. In later years my + mother, looking at me almost reproachfully, would sometimes say, "Ah! you + were such a pretty boy!" whence I had no difficulty in concluding that I + had not fulfilled my early promise in the matter of looks. In fact, I have + a distinct recollection of certain curls of which I was vain, and of a + conviction that I closely resembled that handsome, courtly gentleman, Sir + Herbert Oakley, who was vicar of our parish, and who was as a god to us + country folk, because he was occasionally visited by the then Prince + George of Cambridge. <a href="#linknote-4" name="linknoteref-4" + id="linknoteref-4"><small>4</small></a> I remember turning my pinafore + wrong side forwards in order to represent a surplice, and preaching to my + mother's maids in the kitchen as nearly as possible in Sir Herbert's + manner one Sunday morning when the rest of the family were at church. That + is the earliest indication I can call to mind of the strong clerical + affinities which my friend Mr. Herbert Spencer <a href="#linknote-5" + name="linknoteref-5" id="linknoteref-5"><small>5</small></a> has always + ascribed to me, though I fancy they have for the most part remained in a + latent state. + </p> + <p> + My regular school training was of the briefest, perhaps fortunately, for + though my way of life has made me acquainted with all sorts and conditions + of men, from the highest to the lowest, I deliberately affirm that the + society I fell into at school was the worst I have ever known. We boys + were average lads, with much the same inherent capacity for good and evil + as any others; but the people who were set over us cared about as much for + our intellectual and moral welfare as if they were baby-farmers. We were + left to the operation of the struggle for existence among ourselves, and + bullying was the least of the ill practices current among us. Almost the + only cheerful reminiscence in connection with the place which arises in my + mind is that of a battle I had with one of my classmates, who had bullied + me until I could stand it no longer. I was a very slight lad, but there + was a wild-cat element in me which, when roused, made up for lack of + weight, and I licked my adversary effectually. However, one of my first + experiences of the extremely rough-and-ready nature of justice, as + exhibited by the course of things in general, arose out of the fact that I—the + victor—had a black eye, while he—the vanquished—had + none, so that I got into disgrace and he did not. We made it up, and + thereafter I was unmolested. One of the greatest shocks I ever received in + my life was to be told a dozen years afterwards by the groom who brought + me my horse in a stable-yard in Sydney that he was my quondam antagonist. + He had a long story of family misfortune to account for his position, but + at that time it was necessary to deal very cautiously with mysterious + strangers in New South Wales, and on inquiry I found that the unfortunate + young man had not only been "sent out," but had undergone more than one + colonial conviction. + </p> + <p> + As I grew older, my great desire was to be a mechanical engineer, but the + fates were against this and, while very young, I commenced the study of + medicine under a medical brother-in-law. But, though the Institute of + Mechanical Engineers would certainly not own me, I am not sure that I have + not all along been a sort of mechanical engineer in partibus infidelium.<a + href="#linknote-6" name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a> + I am now occasionally horrified to think how very little I ever knew or + cared about medicine as the art of healing. The only part of my + professional course which really and deeply interested me was physiology, + which is the mechanical engineering of living machines; and, + notwithstanding that natural science has been my proper business, I am + afraid there is very little of the genuine naturalist in me. I never + collected anything, and species work was always a burden to me; what I + cared for was the architectural and engineering part of the business, the + working out of the wonderful unity of plan in the thousands and thousands + of diverse living constructions, and the modifications of similar + apparatuses to serve diverse ends. The extraordinary attraction I felt + towards the study of the intricacies of living structure nearly proved + fatal to me at the outset. I was a mere boy—I think between thirteen + and fourteen years of age—when I was taken by some older student + friends of mine to the first post-mortem examination I ever attended. All + my life I have been most unfortunately sensitive to the disagreeables + which attend anatomical pursuits, but on this occasion my curiosity + overpowered all other feelings, and I spent two or three hours in + gratifying it. I did not cut myself, and none of the ordinary symptoms of + dissection-poison supervened, but poisoned I was somehow, and I remember + sinking into a strange state of apathy. By way of a last chance, I was + sent to the care of some good, kind people, friends of my father's, who + lived in a farmhouse in the heart of Warwickshire. I remember staggering + from my bed to the window on the bright spring morning after my arrival, + and throwing open the casement. Life seemed to come back on the wings of + the breeze, and to this day the faint odor of wood-smoke, like that which + floated across the farm-yard in the early morning, is as good to me as the + "sweet south upon a bed of violets."<a href="#linknote-7" + name="linknoteref-7" id="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a> I soon + recovered, but for years I suffered from occasional paroxysms of internal + pain, and from that time my constant friend, hypochondriacal dyspepsia, + commenced his half century of co-tenancy of my fleshly tabernacle. + </p> + <p> + Looking back on my "Lehrjahre,"<a href="#linknote-8" name="linknoteref-8" + id="linknoteref-8"><small>8</small></a> I am sorry to say that I do not + think that any account of my doings as a student would tend to + edification. In fact, I should distinctly warn ingenuous youth to avoid + imitating my example. I worked extremely hard when it pleased me, and when + it did not—which was a very frequent case—I was extremely idle + (unless making caricatures of one's pastors and masters is to be called a + branch of industry), or else wasted my energies in wrong directions. I + read everything I could lay hands upon, including novels, and took up all + sorts of pursuits to drop them again quite as speedily. No doubt it was + very largely my own fault, but the only instruction from which I ever + obtained the proper effect of education was that which I received from Mr. + Wharton Jones, who was the lecturer on physiology at the Charing Cross + School of Medicine. The extent and precision of his knowledge impressed me + greatly, and the severe exactness of his method of lecturing was quite to + my taste. I do not know that I have ever felt so much respect for anybody + as a teacher before or since. I worked hard to obtain his approbation, and + he was extremely kind and helpful to the youngster who, I am afraid, took + up more of his time than he had any right to do. It was he who suggested + the publication of my first scientific paper—a very little one—in + the Medical Gazette of 1845, and most kindly corrected the literary faults + which abounded in it, short as it was; for at that time, and for many + years afterwards, I detested the trouble of writing, and would take no + pains over it. + </p> + <p> + It was in the early spring of 1846, that, having finished my obligatory + medical studies and passed the first M. D. examination at the London + University,—though I was still too young to qualify at the College + of Surgeons,—I was talking to a fellow-student (the present eminent + physician, Sir Joseph Fayrer), and wondering what I should do to meet the + imperative necessity for earning my own bread, when my friend suggested + that I should write to Sir William Burnett, at that time Director-General + for the Medical Service of the Navy, for an appointment. I thought this + rather a strong thing to do, as Sir William was personally unknown to me, + but my cheery friend would not listen to my scruples, so I went to my + lodgings and wrote the best letter I could devise. A few days afterwards I + received the usual official circular acknowledgment, but at the bottom + there was written an instruction to call at Somerset House on such a day. + I thought that looked like business, so at the appointed time I called and + sent in my card, while I waited in Sir William's ante-room. He was a tall, + shrewd-looking old gentleman, with a broad Scotch accent—and I think + I see him now as he entered with my card in his hand. The first thing he + did was to return it, with the frugal reminder that I should probably find + it useful on some other occasion. The second was to ask whether I was an + Irishman. I suppose the air of modesty about my appeal must have struck + him. I satisfied the Director-General that I was English to the backbone, + and he made some inquiries as to my student career, finally desiring me to + hold myself ready for examination. Having passed this, I was in Her + Majesty's Service, and entered on the books of Nelson's <a + href="#linknote-9" name="linknoteref-9" id="linknoteref-9"><small>9</small></a> + old ship, the Victory, for duty at Haslar Hospital, about a couple of + months after I made my application. + </p> + <p> + My official chief at Haslar was a very remarkable person, the late Sir + John Richardson, an excellent naturalist, and far-famed as an indomitable + Arctic traveller. He was a silent, reserved man, outside the circle of his + family and intimates; and, having a full share of youthful vanity, I was + extremely disgusted to find that "Old John," as we irreverent youngsters + called him, took not the slightest notice of my worshipful self either the + first time I attended him, as it was my duty to do, or for some weeks + afterwards. I am afraid to think of the lengths to which my tongue may + have run on the subject of the churlishness of the chief, who was, in + truth, one of the kindest-hearted and most considerate of men. But one + day, as I was crossing the hospital square, Sir John stopped me, and + heaped coals of fire on my head by telling me that he had tried to get me + one of the resident appointments, much coveted by the assistant surgeons, + but that the Admiralty had put in another man. "However," said he, "I mean + to keep you here till I can get you something you will like," and turned + upon his heel without waiting for the thanks I stammered out. That + explained how it was I had not been packed off to the West Coast of Africa + like some of my juniors, and why, eventually, I remained altogether seven + months at Haslar. + </p> + <p> + After a long interval, during which "Old John" ignored my existence almost + as completely as before, he stopped me again as we met in a casual way, + and describing the service on which the Rattlesnake was likely to be + employed, said that Captain Owen Stanley, who was to command the ship, had + asked him to recommend an assistant surgeon who knew something of science; + would I like that? Of course I jumped at the offer. "Very well, I give you + leave; go to London at once and see Captain Stanley." I went, saw my + future commander, who was very civil to me, and promised to ask that I + should be appointed to his ship, as in due time I was. It is a singular + thing that, during the few months of my stay at Haslar, I had among my + messmates two future Directors-General of the Medical Service of the Navy + (Sir Alexander Armstrong and Sir John Watt-Reid), with the present + President of the College of Physicians and my kindest of doctors, Sir + Andrew Clark. + </p> + <p> + Life on board Her Majesty's ship in those days was a very different affair + from what it is now, and ours was exceptionally rough, as we were often + many months without receiving letters or seeing any civilised people but + ourselves. In exchange, we had the interest of being about the last + voyagers, I suppose, to whom it could be possible to meet with people who + knew nothing of fire-arms—as we did on the south coast of New Guinea—and + of making acquaintance with a variety of interesting savage and + semi-civilised people. But, apart from experience of this kind and the + opportunities offered for scientific work, to me, personally, the cruise + was extremely valuable. It was good for me to live under sharp discipline; + to be down on the realities of existence by living on bare necessaries; to + find out how extremely well worth living life seemed to be when one woke + up from a night's rest on a soft plank, with the sky for canopy and cocoa + and weevilly biscuit the sole prospect for breakfast; and, more + especially, to learn to work for the sake of what I got for myself out of + it, even if it all went to the bottom and I along with it. My brother + officers were as good fellows as sailors ought to be and generally are, + but, naturally, they neither knew nor cared anything about my pursuits, + nor understood why I should be so zealous in pursuit of the objects which + my friends, the middies,<a href="#linknote-10" name="linknoteref-10" + id="linknoteref-10"><small>10</small></a> christened "Buffons," after the + title conspicuous on a volume of the Suites a Buffon,<a href="#linknote-11" + name="linknoteref-11" id="linknoteref-11"><small>11</small></a> which + stood on my shelf in the chart room. + </p> + <p> + During the four years of our absence, I sent home communication after + communication to the "Linnean Society,"<a href="#linknote-12" + name="linknoteref-12" id="linknoteref-12"><small>12</small></a> with the + same result as that obtained by Noah when he sent the raven out of his + ark. Tired at last of hearing nothing about them, I determined to do or + die, and in 1849 I drew up a more elaborate paper and forwarded it to the + Royal Society.<a href="#linknote-13" name="linknoteref-13" + id="linknoteref-13"><small>13</small></a> This was my dove, if I had only + known it. But owing to the movements of the ship, I heard nothing of that + either until my return to England in the latter end of the year 1850, when + I found that it was printed and published, and that a huge packet of + separate copies awaited me. When I hear some of my young friends complain + of want of sympathy and encouragement, I am inclined to think that my + naval life was not the least valuable part of my education. + </p> + <p> + Three years after my return were occupied by a battle between my + scientific friends on the one hand and the Admiralty on the other, as to + whether the latter ought, or ought not, to act up to the spirit of a + pledge they had given to encourage officers who had done scientific work + by contributing to the expense of publishing mine. At last the Admiralty, + getting tired, I suppose, cut short the discussion by ordering me to join + a ship, which thing I declined to do, and as Rastignac,<a + href="#linknote-14" name="linknoteref-14" id="linknoteref-14"><small>14</small></a> + in the Pere Goriot <a href="#linknote-15" name="linknoteref-15" + id="linknoteref-15"><small>15</small></a> says to Paris, I said to London + "a nous deux." I desired to obtain a Professorship of either Physiology or + Comparative Anatomy, and as vacancies occurred I applied, but in vain. My + friend, Professor Tyndall,<a href="#linknote-16" name="linknoteref-16" + id="linknoteref-16"><small>16</small></a> and I were candidates at the + same time, he for the Chair of Physics and I for that of Natural History + in the University of Toronto, which, fortunately, as it turned out, would + not look at either of us. I say fortunately, not from any lack of respect + for Toronto, but because I soon made up my mind that London was the place + for me, and hence I have steadily declined the inducements to leave it, + which have at various times been offered. At last, in 1854, on the + translation of my warm friend Edward Forbes, to Edinburgh, Sir Henry de la + Beche, the Director-General of the Geological Survey, offered me the post + Forbes vacated of Paleontologist and Lecturer on Natural History. I + refused the former point blank, and accepted the latter only + provisionally, telling Sir Henry that I did not care for fossils, and that + I should give up Natural History as soon as I could get a physiological + post. But I held the office for thirty-one years, and a large part of my + work has been paleontological. + </p> + <p> + At that time I disliked public speaking, and had a firm conviction that I + should break down every time I opened my mouth. I believe I had every + fault a speaker could have (except talking at random or indulging in + rhetoric), when I spoke to the first important audience I ever addressed, + on a Friday evening at the Royal Institution, in 1852. Yet, I must confess + to having been guilty, malgre moi, of as much public speaking as most of + my contemporaries, and for the last ten years it ceased to be so much of a + bugbear to me. I used to pity myself for having to go through this + training, but I am now more disposed to compassionate the unfortunate + audiences, especially my ever friendly hearers at the Royal Institution, + who were the subjects of my oratorical experiments. + </p> + <p> + The last thing that it would be proper for me to do would be to speak of + the work of my life, or to say at the end of the day whether I think I + have earned my wages or not. Men are said to be partial judges of + themselves. Young men may be, I doubt if old men are. Life seems terribly + foreshortened as they look back and the mountain they set themselves to + climb in youth turns out to be a mere spur of immeasurably higher ranges + when, by failing breath, they reach the top. But if I may speak of the + objects I have had more or less definitely in view since I began the + ascent of my hillock, they are briefly these: To promote the increase of + natural knowledge and to forward the application of scientific methods of + investigation to all the problems of life to the best of my ability, in + the conviction which has grown with my growth and strengthened with my + strength, that there is no alleviation for the sufferings of mankind + except veracity of thought and of action, and the resolute facing of the + world as it is when the garment of make-believe by which pious hands have + hidden its uglier features is stripped off. + </p> + <p> + It is with this intent that I have subordinated any reasonable, or + unreasonable, ambition for scientific fame which I may have permitted + myself to entertain to other ends; to the popularization of science; to + the development and organisation of scientific education; to the endless + series of battles and skirmishes over evolution; and to untiring + opposition to that ecclesiastical spirit,<a href="#linknote-17" + name="linknoteref-17" id="linknoteref-17"><small>17</small></a> that + clericalism, which in England, as everywhere else, and to whatever + denomination it may belong, is the deadly enemy of science. + </p> + <p> + In striving for the attainment of these objects, I have been but one among + many, and I shall be well content to be remembered, or even not + remembered, as such. Circumstances, among which I am proud to reckon the + devoted kindness of many friends, have led to my occupation of various + prominent positions, among which the Presidency of the Royal Society is + the highest. It would be mock modesty on my part, with these and other + scientific honours which have been bestowed upon me, to pretend that I + have not succeeded in the career which I have followed, rather because I + was driven into it than of my own free will; but I am afraid I should not + count even these things as marks of success if I could not hope that I had + somewhat helped that movement of opinion which has been called the New + Reformation.<a href="#linknote-18" name="linknoteref-18" + id="linknoteref-18"><small>18</small></a> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE <a href="#linknote-19" + name="linknoteref-19" id="linknoteref-19"><small>19</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + This time two hundred years ago—in the beginning of January, 1666—those + of our forefathers who inhabited this great and ancient city, took breath + between the shocks of two fearful calamities: one not quite past, although + its fury had abated; the other to come. + </p> + <p> + Within a few yards of the very spot <a href="#linknote-20" + name="linknoteref-20" id="linknoteref-20"><small>20</small></a> on which + we are assembled, so the tradition runs, that painful and deadly malady, + the plague, appeared in the latter months of 1664; and, though no new + visitor, smote the people of England, and especially of her capital, with + a violence unknown before, in the course of the following year. The hand + of a master has pictured what happened in those dismal months; and in that + truest of fictions, The History of the Plague Year, Defoe <a + href="#linknote-21" name="linknoteref-21" id="linknoteref-21"><small>21</small></a> + shows death, with every accompaniment of pain and terror, stalking through + the narrow streets of old London, and changing their busy hum into a + silence broken only by the wailing of the mourners of fifty thousand dead; + by the woeful denunciations and mad prayers of fanatics; and by the madder + yells of despairing profligates. + </p> + <p> + But, about this time in 1666, the death-rate had sunk to nearly its + ordinary amount; a case of plague occurred only here and there, and the + richer citizens who had flown from the pest had returned to their + dwellings. The remnant of the people began to toil at the accustomed round + of duty, or of pleasure; and the stream of city life bid fair to flow back + along its old bed, with renewed and uninterrupted vigour. + </p> + <p> + The newly kindled hope was deceitful. The great plague, indeed, returned + no more; but what it had done for the Londoners, the great fire, which + broke out in the autumn of 1666, did for London; and, in September of that + year, a heap of ashes and the indestructible energy of the people were all + that remained of the glory of five-sixths of the city within the walls. + </p> + <p> + Our forefathers had their own ways of accounting for each of these + calamities. They submitted to the plague in humility and in penitence, for + they believed it to be the judgment of God. But, towards the fire they + were furiously indignant, interpreting it as the effect of the malice of + man,—as the work of the Republicans, or of the Papists, according as + their prepossessions ran in favour of loyalty or of Puritanism. + </p> + <p> + It would, I fancy, have fared but ill with one who, standing where I now + stand, in what was then a thickly peopled and fashionable part of London, + should have broached to our ancestors the doctrine which I now propound to + you—that all their hypotheses were alike wrong; that the plague was + no more, in their sense, Divine judgment, than the fire was the work of + any political, or of any religious sect; but that they were themselves the + authors of both plague and fire, and that they must look to themselves to + prevent the recurrence of calamities, to all appearance so peculiarly + beyond the reach of human control—so evidently the result of the + wrath of God, or of the craft and subtlety of an enemy. + </p> + <p> + And one may picture to one's self how harmoniously the holy cursing of the + Puritan of that day would have chimed in with the unholy cursing and the + crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys,<a href="#linknote-22" + name="linknoteref-22" id="linknoteref-22"><small>22</small></a> and with + the revilings of the political fanatics, if my imaginary plain dealer had + gone on to say that, if the return of such misfortunes were ever rendered + impossible, it would not be in virtue of the victory of the faith of Laud,<a + href="#linknote-23" name="linknoteref-23" id="linknoteref-23"><small>23</small></a> + or of that of Milton; and, as little, by the triumph of republicanism, as + by that of monarchy. But that the one thing needful for compassing this + end was, that the people of England should second the efforts of an + insignificant corporation, the establishment of which, a few years before + the epoch of the great plague and the great fire, had been as little + noticed, as they were conspicuous. + </p> + <p> + Some twenty years before the outbreak of the plague a few calm and + thoughtful students banded themselves together for the purpose, as they + phrased it, of "improving natural knowledge." The ends they proposed to + attain cannot be stated more clearly than in the words of one of the + founders of the organisation:— + </p> + <p> + "Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to + discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, and such as related + thereunto:—as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, + Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments; with + the state of these studies and their cultivation at home and abroad. We + then discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves in the veins, + the venae lacteae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican hypothesis, the + nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of Jupiter, the oval shape + (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots on the sun and its turning on + its own axis, the inequalities and selenography <a href="#linknote-24" + name="linknoteref-24" id="linknoteref-24"><small>24</small></a> of the + moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, the improvement of + telescopes and grinding of glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, + the possibility or impossibility of vacuities and nature's abhorrence + thereof, the Torricellian experiment <a href="#linknote-25" + name="linknoteref-25" id="linknoteref-25"><small>25</small></a> in + quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of acceleration + therein, with divers other things of like nature, some of which were then + but new discoveries, and others not so generally known and embraced as now + they are; with other things appertaining to what hath been called the New + Philosophy, which from the times of Galileo at Florence, and Sir Francis + Bacon <a href="#linknote-26" name="linknoteref-26" id="linknoteref-26"><small>26</small></a> + (Lord Verulam) in England, hath been much cultivated in Italy, France, + Germany, and other parts abroad, as well as with us in England." + </p> + <p> + The learned Dr. Wallis,<a href="#linknote-27" name="linknoteref-27" + id="linknoteref-27"><small>27</small></a> writing in 1696, narrates in + these words, what happened half a century before, or about 1645. The + associates met at Oxford, in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to + become a bishop; and subsequently coming together in London, they + attracted the notice of the king. And it is a strange evidence of the + taste for knowledge which the most obviously worthless of the Stuarts + shared with his father and grandfather, that Charles the Second was not + content with saying witty things about his philosophers, but did wise + things with regard to them. For he not only bestowed upon them such + attention as he could spare from his poodles and his mistresses, but, + being in his usual state of impecuniosity, begged for them of the Duke of + Ormond; and, that step being without effect, gave them Chelsea College, a + charter, and a mace: crowning his favours in the best way they could be + crowned, by burdening them no further with royal patronage or state + interference. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, studious of the "New + Philosophy," <a href="#linknote-28" name="linknoteref-28" + id="linknoteref-28"><small>28</small></a> who met in one another's + lodgings in Oxford or in London, in the middle of the seventeenth century, + grew in numerical and in real strength, until, in its latter part, the + "Royal Society for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge" had already + become famous, and had acquired a claim upon the veneration of Englishmen, + which it has ever since retained, as the principal focus of scientific + activity in our islands, and the chief champion of the cause it was formed + to support. + </p> + <p> + It was by the aid of the Royal Society <a href="#linknote-29" + name="linknoteref-29" id="linknoteref-29"><small>29</small></a> that + Newton <a href="#linknote-30" name="linknoteref-30" id="linknoteref-30"><small>30</small></a> + published his Principia. If all the books in the world, except the + Philosophical Transactions, <a href="#linknote-31" name="linknoteref-31" + id="linknoteref-31"><small>31</small></a> were destroyed, it is safe to + say that the foundations of physical science would remain unshaken, and + that the vast intellectual progress of the last two centuries would be + largely, though incompletely, recorded. Nor have any signs of halting or + of decrepitude manifested themselves in our own times. As in Dr. Wallis's + days, so in these, "our business is, precluding theology and state + affairs, to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries." But our + "Mathematick" is one which Newton would have to go to school to learn; our + "Staticks, Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural Experiments" + constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, a glimpse at which + would compensate Galileo <a href="#linknote-32" name="linknoteref-32" + id="linknoteref-32"><small>32</small></a> for the doings of a score of + inquisitorial cardinals; our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced such + infinite varieties of beings, have laid open such new worlds in time and + space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex problems, that + the eyes of Vesalius <a href="#linknote-33" name="linknoteref-33" + id="linknoteref-33"><small>33</small></a> and of Harvey <a + href="#linknote-34" name="linknoteref-34" id="linknoteref-34"><small>34</small></a> + might be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of their + grain of mustard seed. + </p> + <p> + The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, forced upon one's + notice, nowadays, that all this marvellous intellectual growth has a no + less wonderful expression in practical life; and that, in this respect, if + in no other, the movement symbolised by the progress of the Royal Society + stands without a parallel in the history of mankind. + </p> + <p> + A series of volumes as bulky as the "Transactions of the Royal Society" + might possibly be filled with the subtle speculations <a + href="#linknote-35" name="linknoteref-35" id="linknoteref-35"><small>35</small></a> + of the Schoolmen;<a href="#linknote-36" name="linknoteref-36" + id="linknoteref-36"><small>36</small></a> not improbably, the obtaining a + mastery over the products of mediaeval thought might necessitate an even + greater expenditure of time and of energy than the acquirement of the "New + Philosophy"; but though such work engrossed the best intellects of Europe + for a longer time than has elapsed since the great fire, its effects were + "writ in water,"<a href="#linknote-37" name="linknoteref-37" + id="linknoteref-37"><small>37</small></a> so far as our social state is + concerned. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, if the noble first President of the Royal Society could + revisit the upper air and once more gladden his eyes with a sight of the + familiar mace, he would find himself in the midst of a material + civilisation more different from that of his day, than that of the + seventeenth was from that of the first century. And if Lord Brouncker's <a + href="#linknote-38" name="linknoteref-38" id="linknoteref-38"><small>38</small></a> + native sagacity had not deserted his ghost, he would need no long + reflection to discover that all these great ships, these railways, these + telegraphs, these factories, these printing-presses, without which the + whole fabric of modern English society would collapse into a mass of + stagnant and starving pauperism,—that all these pillars of our State + are but the ripples and the bubbles upon the surface of that great + spiritual stream, the springs of which only, he and his fellows were + privileged to see; and seeing, to recognise as that which it behoved them + above all things to keep pure and undefiled. + </p> + <p> + It may not be too great a flight of imagination to conceive our noble + revenant <a href="#linknote-39" name="linknoteref-39" id="linknoteref-39"><small>39</small></a> + not forgetful of the great troubles of his own day, and anxious to know + how often London had been burned down since his time and how often the + plague had carried off its thousands. He would have to learn that, + although London contains tenfold the inflammable matter that it did in + 1666; though, not content with filling our rooms with woodwork and light + draperies, we must needs lead inflammable and explosive gases into every + corner of our streets and houses, we never allow even a street to burn + down. And if he asked how this had come about, we should have to explain + that the improvement of natural knowledge has furnished us with dozens of + machines for throwing water upon fires, any one of which would have + furnished the ingenious Mr. Hooke, the first "curator and experimenter" of + the Royal Society, with ample materials for discourse before half a dozen + meetings of that body; and that, to say truth, except for the progress of + natural knowledge, we should not have been able to make even the tools by + which these machines are constructed. And, further, it would be necessary + to add, that although severe fires sometimes occur and inflict great + damage, the loss is very generally compensated by societies, the + operations of which have been rendered possible only by the progress of + natural knowledge in the direction of mathematics, and the accumulation of + wealth in virtue of other natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + But the plague? My Lord Brouncker's observation would not, I fear, lead + him to think that Englishmen of the nineteenth century are purer in life, + or more fervent in religious faith, than the generation which could + produce a Boyle,<a href="#linknote-40" name="linknoteref-40" + id="linknoteref-40"><small>40</small></a> an Evelyn,<a href="#linknote-41" + name="linknoteref-41" id="linknoteref-41"><small>41</small></a> and a + Milton. He might find the mud of society at the bottom, instead of at the + top, but I fear that the sum total would be as deserving of swift judgment + as at the time of the Restoration.<a href="#linknote-42" + name="linknoteref-42" id="linknoteref-42"><small>42</small></a> And it + would be our duty to explain once more, and this time not without shame, + that we have no reason to believe that it is the improvement of our faith, + nor that of our morals, which keeps the plague from our city; but, again, + that it is the improvement of our natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + We have learned that pestilences will only take up their abode among those + who have prepared unswept and ungarnished residences for them. Their + cities must have narrow, unwatered streets, foul with accumulated garbage. + Their houses must be ill-drained, ill-lighted, ill-ventilated. Their + subjects must be ill-washed, ill-fed, ill-clothed. The London of 1665 was + such a city. The cities of the East, where plague has an enduring + dwelling, are such cities. We, in later times, have learned somewhat of + Nature, and partly obey her. Because of this partial improvement of our + natural knowledge and of that fractional obedience, we have no plague; + because that knowledge is still very imperfect and that obedience yet + incomplete, typhoid is our companion and cholera our visitor. But it is + not presumptuous to express the belief that, when our knowledge is more + complete and our obedience the expression of our knowledge, London will + count her centuries of freedom from typhoid and cholera, as she now + gratefully reckons her two hundred years of ignorance of that plague which + swooped upon her thrice in the first half of the seventeenth century. + </p> + <p> + Surely, there is nothing in these explanations which is not fully borne + out by the facts? Surely, the principles involved in them are now admitted + among the fixed beliefs of all thinking men? Surely, it is true that our + countrymen are less subject to fire, famine, pestilence, and all the evils + which result from a want of command over and due anticipation of the + course of Nature, than were the countrymen of Milton; and health, wealth, + and well-being are more abundant with us than with them? But no less + certainly is the difference due to the improvement of our knowledge of + Nature, and the extent to which that improved knowledge has been + incorporated with the household words of men, and has supplied the springs + of their daily actions. + </p> + <p> + Granting for a moment, then, the truth of that which the depreciators of + natural knowledge are so fond of urging, that its improvement can only add + to the resources of our material civilisation; admitting it to be possible + that the founders of the Royal Society themselves looked for not other + reward than this, I cannot confess that I was guilty of exaggeration when + I hinted, that to him who had the gift of distinguishing between prominent + events and important events, the origin of a combined effort on the part + of mankind to improve natural knowledge might have loomed larger than the + Plague and have outshone the glare of the Fire; as a something fraught + with a wealth of beneficence to mankind, in comparison with which the + damage done by those ghastly evils would shrink into insignificance. + </p> + <p> + It is very certain that for every victim slain by the plague, hundreds of + mankind exist and find a fair share of happiness in the world by the aid + of the spinning jenny. And the great fire, at its worst, could not have + burned the supply of coal, the daily working of which, in the bowels of + the earth, made possible by the steam pump, gives rise to an amount of + wealth to which the millions lost in old London are but as an old song. + </p> + <p> + But spinning jenny and steam pump are, after all, but toys, possessing an + accidental value; and natural knowledge creates multitudes of more subtle + contrivances, the praises of which do not happen to be sung because they + are not directly convertible into instruments for creating wealth. When I + contemplate natural knowledge squandering such gifts among men, the only + appropriate comparison I can find for her is to liken her to such a + peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever upward, heavily + burdened, and with mind bent only on her home; but yet without effort and + without thought, knitting for her children. Now stockings are good and + comfortable things, and the children will undoubtedly be much the better + for them; but surely it would be short-sighted, to say the least of it, to + depreciate this toiling mother as a mere stocking-machine—a mere + provider of physical comforts? + </p> + <p> + However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a few of them, who + take this view of natural knowledge, and can see nothing in the bountiful + mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding machine. According to + them, the improvement of natural knowledge always has been, and always + must be, synonymous with no more than the improvement of the material + resources and the increase of the gratifications of men. + </p> + <p> + Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of mankind, bringing + them up with kindness, and, if need be, with sternness, in the way they + should go, and instructing them in all things needful for their welfare; + but a sort of fairy god-mother, ready to furnish her pets with shoes of + swiftness, swords of sharpness, and omnipotent Aladdin's lamps,<a + href="#linknote-43" name="linknoteref-43" id="linknoteref-43"><small>43</small></a> + so that they may have telegraphs to Saturn, and see the other side of the + moon, and thank God they are better than their benighted ancestors. + </p> + <p> + If this talk were true, I, for one, should not greatly care to toil in the + service of natural knowledge. I think I would just as soon be quietly + chipping my own flint axe, after the manner of my forefathers a few + thousand years back, as be troubled with the endless malady of thought + which now infests us all, for such reward. But I venture to say that such + views are contrary alike to reason and to fact. Those who discourse in + such fashion seem to me to be so intent upon trying to see what is above + Nature, or what is behind her, that they are blind to what stares them in + the face in her. + </p> + <p> + I should not venture thus to speak strongly if my justification were not + to be found in the simplest and most obvious facts,—if it needed + more than an appeal to the most notorious truths to justify my assertion, + that the improvement of natural knowledge, whatever direction it has + taken, and however low the aims of those who may have commenced it—has + not only conferred practical benefits on men, but, in so doing, has + effected a revolution in their conceptions of the universe and of + themselves, and has profoundly altered their modes of thinking and their + views of right and wrong. I say that natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy + natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual + cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws + of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay the + foundations of a new morality. + </p> + <p> + Let us take these points separately; and first, what great ideas has + natural knowledge introduced into men's minds? + </p> + <p> + I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural knowledge were laid + when the reason of man first came face to face with the facts of Nature; + when the savage first learned that the fingers of one hand are fewer than + those of both; that it is shorter to cross a stream than to head it; that + a stone stops where it is unless it be moved, and that it drops from the + hand which lets it go; that light and heat come and go with the sun; that + sticks burn away in a fire; that plants and animals grow and die; that if + he struck his fellow savage a blow he would make him angry, and perhaps + get a blow in return, while if he offered him a fruit he would please him, + and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. When men had acquired this much + knowledge, the outlines, rude though they were, of mathematics, of + physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, economical, and political + science, were sketched. Nor did the germ of religion fail when science + began to bud. Listen to words which, though new, are yet three thousand + years old:— + </p> + <p> + . . . When in heaven the stars about the moon Look beautiful, when all the + winds are laid, And every height comes out, and jutting peak And valley, + and the immeasurable heavens Break open to their highest, and all the + stars Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart.<a href="#linknote-44" + name="linknoteref-44" id="linknoteref-44"><small>44</small></a> + </p> + <p> + If the half savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, it is + irrational to doubt that he went further, to find as we do, that upon that + brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow,—the little light of + awakened human intelligence shines so mere a spark amidst the abyss of the + unknown and unknowable; seems so insufficient to do more than illuminate + the imperfections that cannot be remedied, the aspirations that cannot be + realised, of man's own nature. But in this sadness, this consciousness of + the limitation of man, this sense of an open secret which he cannot + penetrate, lies the essence of all religion; and the attempt to embody it + in the forms furnished by the intellect is the origin of the higher + theologies. + </p> + <p> + Thus it seems impossible to imagine but that the foundations of all + knowledge—secular or sacred—were laid when intelligence + dawned, though the superstructure remained for long ages so slight and + feeble as to be compatible with the existence of almost any general view + respecting the mode of governance of the universe. No doubt, from the + first, there were certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind, presented a + constancy of occurrence, and suggested that a fixed order ruled, at any + rate, among them. I doubt if the grossest of Fetish worshippers ever + imagined that a stone must have a god within it to make it fall, or that a + fruit had a god within it to make it taste sweet. With regard to such + matters as these, it is hardly questionable that mankind from the first + took strictly positive and scientific views. + </p> + <p> + But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which present + themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always taken himself as the + standard of comparison, as the centre and measure of the world; nor could + be well avoid doing so. And finding that his apparently uncaused will has + a powerful effect in giving rise to many occurrences, he naturally enough + ascribed other and greater events to other and greater volitions and came + to look upon the world and all that therein is, as the product of the + volitions of persons like himself, but stronger, and capable of being + appeased or angered, as he himself might be soothed or irritated. Through + such conceptions of the plan and working of the universe all mankind have + passed, or are passing. And we may now consider what has been the effect + of the improvement of natural knowledge on the views of men who have + reached this stage, and who have begun to cultivate natural knowledge with + no desire but that of "increasing God's honour and bettering man's + estate."<a href="#linknote-45" name="linknoteref-45" id="linknoteref-45"><small>45</small></a> + </p> + <p> + For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material point of view, + more innocent, from a theological one, to an ancient people, than that + they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as warnings for + their husbandmen; or the position of the stars, as guides to their rude + navigators?<a href="#linknote-46" name="linknoteref-46" id="linknoteref-46"><small>46</small></a> + But what has grown out of this search for natural knowledge of so merely + useful a character? You all know the reply. Astronomy,—which of all + sciences has filled men's minds with general ideas of a character most + foreign to their daily experience, and has, more than any other, rendered + it impossible for them to accept the beliefs of their fathers. Astronomy,—which + tells them that this so vast and seemingly solid earth is but an atom + among atoms, whirling, no man knows whither, through illimitable space; + which demonstrates that what we call the peaceful heaven above us, is but + that space, filled by an infinitely subtle matter whose particles are + seething and surging, like the waves of an angry sea; which opens up to us + infinite regions where nothing is known, or ever seems to have been known, + but matter and force, operating according to rigid rules; which leads us + to contemplate phaenomena the very nature of which demonstrates that they + must have had a beginning, and that they must have an end, but the very + nature of which also proves that the beginning was, to our conceptions of + time, infinitely remote, and that the end is as immeasurably distant. + </p> + <p> + But it is not alone those who pursue astronomy who ask for bread and + receive ideas. What more harmless than the attempt to lift and distribute + water by pumping it; what more absolutely and grossly utilitarian? Yet out + of pumps grew the discussions about Nature's abhorrence of a vacuum; and + then it was discovered that Nature does not abhor a vacuum, but that air + has weight; and that notion paved the way for the doctrine that all matter + has weight, and that the force which produces weight is co-extensive with + the universe,—in short, to the theory of universal gravitation and + endless force. While learning how to handle gases led to the discovery of + oxygen, and to modern chemistry, and to the notion of the + indestructibility of matter. + </p> + <p> + Again, what simpler, or more absolutely practical, than the attempt to + keep the axle of a wheel from heating when the wheel turns round very + fast? How useful for carters and gig drivers to know something about this; + and how good were it, if any ingenious person would find out the cause of + such phaenomena, and thence educe a general remedy for them. Such an + ingenious person was Count Rumford;<a href="#linknote-47" + name="linknoteref-47" id="linknoteref-47"><small>47</small></a> and he and + his successors have landed us in the theory of the persistence, or + indestructibility, of force. And in the infinitely minute, as in the + infinitely great, the seekers after natural knowledge of the kinds called + physical and chemical, have everywhere found a definite order and + succession of events which seem never to be infringed. + </p> + <p> + And how has it fared with "Physick" and Anatomy? Have the anatomist, the + physiologist, or the physician, whose business it has been to devote + themselves assiduously to that eminently practical and direct end, the + alleviation of the sufferings of mankind,—have they been able to + confine their vision more absolutely to the strictly useful? I fear they + are the worst offenders of all. For if the astronomer has set before us + the infinite magnitude of space, and the practical eternity of the + duration of the universe; if the physical and chemical philosophers have + demonstrated the infinite minuteness of its constituent parts, and the + practical eternity of matter and of force; and if both have alike + proclaimed the universality of a definite and predicable order and + succession of events, the workers in biology have not only accepted all + these, but have added more startling theses of their own. For, as the + astronomers discover in the earth no centre of the universe, but an + eccentric <a href="#linknote-48" name="linknoteref-48" id="linknoteref-48"><small>48</small></a> + speck, so the naturalists find man to be no centre of the living world, + but one amidst endless modifications of life; and as the astronomers + observe the mark of practically endless time set upon the arrangements of + the solar system so the student of life finds the records of ancient forms + of existence peopling the world for ages, which, in relation to human + experience, are infinite. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore, the physiologist finds life to be as dependent for its + manifestation of particular molecular arrangements as any physical or + chemical phenomenon; and wherever he extends his researches, fixed order + and unchanging causation reveal themselves, as plainly as in the rest of + Nature. + </p> + <p> + Nor can I find that any other fate has awaited the germ of Religion. + Arising, like all other kinds of knowledge, out of the action and + interaction of man's mind, with that which is not man's mind, it has taken + the intellectual coverings of Fetishism or Polytheism; of Theism or + Atheism; of Superstition or Rationalism. With these, and their relative + merits and demerits, I have nothing to do; but this it is needful for my + purpose to say, that if the religion of the present differs from that of + the past, it is because the theology of the present has become more + scientific than that of the past; because it has not only renounced idols + of wood and idols of stone, but begins to see the necessity of breaking in + pieces the idols built up of books and traditions and fine-spun + ecclesiastical cobwebs: and of cherishing the noblest and most human of + man's emotions, by worship "for the most part of the silent sort" at the + Altar of the Unknown. + </p> + <p> + Such are a few of the new conceptions implanted in our minds by the + improvement of natural knowledge. Men have acquired the ideas of the + practically infinite extent of the universe and of its practical eternity; + they are familiar with the conception that our earth is but an + infinitesimal fragment of that part of the universe which can be seen; and + that, nevertheless, its duration is, as compared with our standards of + time, infinite. They have further acquired the idea that man is but one of + innumerable forms of life now existing on the globe, and that the present + existences are but the last of an immeasurable series of predecessors. + Moreover, every step they have made in natural knowledge has tended to + extend and rivet in their minds the conception of a definite order of the + universe—which is embodied in what are called, by an unhappy + metaphor, the laws of Nature—and to narrow the range and loosen the + force of men's belief in spontaneity, or in changes other than such as + arise out of that definite order itself. + </p> + <p> + Whether these ideas are well or ill founded is not the question. No one + can deny that they exist, and have been the inevitable outgrowth of the + improvement of natural knowledge. And if so, it cannot be doubted that + they are changing the form of men's most cherished and most important + convictions. + </p> + <p> + And as regards the second point—the extent to which the improvement + of natural knowledge has remodelled and altered what may be termed the + intellectual ethics of men,—what are among the moral convictions + most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people? + </p> + <p> + They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of belief; + that merit attaches to a readiness to believe; that the doubting + disposition is a bad one, and scepticism a sin; that when good authority + has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted it, reason + has no further duty. There are many excellent persons who yet hold by + these principles, and it is not my present business, or intention, to + discuss their views. All I wish to bring clearly before your minds is the + unquestionable fact, that the improvement of natural knowledge is effected + by methods which directly give the lie to all these convictions, and + assume the exact reverse of each to be true. + </p> + <p> + The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge + authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind + faith the one unpardonable sin. And it cannot be otherwise, for every + great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of + authority, the cherishing of the keenest scepticism, the annihilation of + the spirit of blind faith; and the most ardent votary of science holds his + firmest convictions, not because the men he most venerates hold them; not + because their verity is testified by portents and wonders; but because his + experience teaches him that whenever he chooses to bring these convictions + into contact with their primary source, Nature—whenever he thinks + fit to test them by appealing to experiment and to observation—Nature + will confirm them. The man of science has learned to believe in + justification, not by faith, but by verification. + </p> + <p> + Thus, without for a moment pretending to despise the practical results of + the improvement of natural knowledge, and its beneficial influence on + material civilisation, it must, I think, be admitted that the great ideas, + some of which I have indicated, and the ethical spirit which I have + endeavoured to sketch, in the few moments which remained at my disposal, + constitute the real and permanent significance of natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + If these ideas be destined, as I believe they are, to be more and more + firmly established as the world grows older; if that spirit be fated, as I + believe it is, to extend itself into all departments of human thought, and + to become co-extensive with the range of knowledge; if, as our race + approaches its maturity, it discovers, as I believe it will, that there is + but one kind of knowledge and but one method of acquiring it; then we, who + are still children, may justly feel it our highest duty to recognise the + advisableness of improving natural knowledge, and so to aid ourselves and + our successors in our course towards the noble goal which lies before + mankind. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A LIBERAL EDUCATION <a href="#linknote-49" name="linknoteref-49" + id="linknoteref-49"><small>49</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + The business which the South London Working Men's College has undertaken + is a great work; indeed, I might say, that Education, with which that + college proposes to grapple, is the greatest work of all those which lie + ready to a man's hand just at present. + </p> + <p> + And, at length, this fact is becoming generally recognised. You cannot go + anywhere without hearing a buzz of more or less confused and contradictory + talk on this subject—nor can you fail to notice that, in one point + at any rate, there is a very decided advance upon like discussions in + former days. Nobody outside the agricultural interest now dares to say + that education is a bad thing. If any representative of the once large and + powerful party, which, in former days, proclaimed this opinion, still + exists in the semi-fossil state, he keeps his thoughts to himself. In + fact, there is a chorus of voices, almost distressing in their harmony, + raised in favour of the doctrine that education is the great panacea for + human troubles, and that, if the country is not shortly to go to the dogs, + everybody must be educated. + </p> + <p> + The politicians tell us, "You must educate the masses because they are + going to be masters." The clergy join in the cry for education, for they + affirm that the people are drifting away from church and chapel into the + broadest infidelity. The manufacturers and the capitalists swell the + chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance makes bad workmen; that + England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods, or steam engines, + cheaper than other people; and then, Ichabod! Ichabod!<a + href="#linknote-50" name="linknoteref-50" id="linknoteref-50"><small>50</small></a> + the glory will be departed from us. And a few voices are lifted up in + favour of the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they are + men and women with unlimited capacities of being, doing, and suffering, + and that it is as true now, as it ever was, that the people perish for + lack of knowledge. + </p> + <p> + These members of the minority, with whom I confess I have a good deal of + sympathy, are doubtful whether any of the other reasons urged in favour of + the education of the people are of much value—whether, indeed, some + of them are based upon either wise or noble grounds of action. They + question if it be wise to tell people that you will do for them, out of + fear of their power, what you have left undone, so long as your only + motive was compassion for their weakness and their sorrows. And, if + ignorance of everything which is needful a ruler should know is likely to + do so much harm in the governing classes of the future, why is it, they + ask reasonably enough, that such ignorance in the governing classes of the + past has not been viewed with equal horror? + </p> + <p> + Compare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it may be + doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in point of + ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that the ignorance is + of a different sort—that the class feeling is in favour of a + different class and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of + wrong-headedness in each case—but it is questionable if the one is + either a bit better, or a bit worse, than the other. The old protectionist + theory is the doctrine of trades unions as applied by the squires, and the + modern trades unionism is the doctrine of the squires applied by the + artisans. Why should we be worse off under one regime than under the + other? + </p> + <p> + Again, this sceptical minority asks the clergy to think whether it is + really want of education which keeps the masses away from their + ministrations—whether the most completely educated men are not as + open to reproach on this score as the workmen; and whether, perchance, + this may not indicate that it is not education which lies at the bottom of + the matter? + </p> + <p> + Once more, these people, whom there is no pleasing, venture to doubt + whether the glory which rests upon being able to undersell all the rest of + the world, is a very safe kind of glory—whether we may not purchase + it too dear; especially if we allow education, which ought to be directed + to the making of men, to be diverted into a process of manufacturing human + tools, wonderfully adroit in the exercise of some technical industry, but + good for nothing else. + </p> + <p> + And, finally, these people inquire whether it is the masses alone who need + a reformed and improved education. They ask whether the richest of our + public schools might not well be made to supply knowledge, as well as + gentlemanly habits, a strong class feeling, and eminent proficiency in + cricket. They seem to think that the noble foundations of our old + universities are hardly fulfilling their functions in their present + posture of half-clerical seminaries, half racecourses, where men are + trained to win a senior wranglership,<a href="#linknote-51" + name="linknoteref-51" id="linknoteref-51"><small>51</small></a> or a + double-first,<a href="#linknote-52" name="linknoteref-52" + id="linknoteref-52"><small>52</small></a> as horses are trained to win a + cup, with as little reference to the needs of after-life in the case of a + man as in that of the racer. And, while as zealous for education as the + rest, they affirm that, if the education of the richer classes were such + as to fit them to be the leaders and the governors of the poorer; and, if + the education of the poorer classes were such as to enable them to + appreciate really wise guidance and good governance, the politicians need + not fear mob-law, nor the clergy lament their want of flocks, nor the + capitalists prognosticate the annihilation of the prosperity of the + country. + </p> + <p> + Such is the diversity of opinion upon the why and the wherefore of + education. And my hearers will be prepared to expect that the practical + recommendations which are put forward are not less discordant. There is a + loud cry for compulsory education. We English, in spite of constant + experience to the contrary, preserve a touching faith in the efficacy of + acts of Parliament; and I believe we should have compulsory education in + the courses of next session, if there were the least probability that half + a dozen leading statesmen of different parties would agree what that + education should be. + </p> + <p> + Some hold that education without theology is worse than none. Others + maintain, quite as strongly, that education with theology is in the same + predicament. But this is certain, that those who hold the first opinion + can by no means agree what theology should be taught; and that those who + maintain the second are in a small minority. + </p> + <p> + At any rate "make people learn to read, write, and cipher," say a great + many; and the advice is undoubtedly sensible as far as it goes. But, as + has happened to me in former days, those who, in despair of getting + anything better, advocate this measure, are met with the objection that it + is very like making a child practise the use of a knife, fork, and spoon, + without giving it particle of meat. I really don't know what reply is to + be made to such an objection. + </p> + <p> + But it would be unprofitable to spend more time in disentangling, or + rather in showing up the knots in, the ravelled skeins of our neighbours. + Much more to the purpose is it to ask if we possess any clue of our own + which may guide us among these entanglements. And by way of a beginning, + let us ask ourselves—What is education? Above all things, what is + our ideal of a thoroughly liberal education?—of that education + which, if we could begin life again, we would give ourselves—of that + education which, if we could mould the fates to our own will, we would + give our children? Well, I know not what may be your conceptions upon this + matter, but I will tell you mine, and I hope I shall find that our views + are not very discrepant. + </p> + <p> + Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one + of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a game of + chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty + to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; to have a notion + of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of giving and getting out of + check? Do you not think that we should look with a disapprobation + amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed his son, or the state + which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a + knight? + </p> + <p> + Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the fortune, + and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are + connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a + game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game + which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one + of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chessboard is the + world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game + are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is + hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. + But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes + the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, the + highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity with + which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is + checkmated—without haste, but without remorse. + </p> + <p> + My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which Retzsch + <a href="#linknote-53" name="linknoteref-53" id="linknoteref-53"><small>53</small></a> + has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. Substitute for + the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel who is playing for + love, as we say, and would rather lose than win—and I should accept + it as an image of human life. + </p> + <p> + Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty game. + In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws + of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and their forces, + but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of the + will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws. + For me, education means neither more nor less than this. Anything which + professes to call itself education must be tried by this standard, and if + it fails to stand the test, I will not call it education, whatever may be + the force of authority, or of numbers, upon the other side. + </p> + <p> + It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is no such thing as + an uneducated man. Take an extreme case. Suppose that an adult man, in the + full vigour of his faculties, could be suddenly placed in the world, as + Adam is said to have been, and then left to do as he best might. How long + would he be left uneducated? Not five minutes. Nature would begin to teach + him, through the eye, the ear, the touch, the properties of objects. Pain + and pleasure would be at his elbow telling him to do this and avoid that; + and by slow degrees the man would receive an education which, if narrow, + would be thorough, real, and adequate to his circumstances, though there + would be no extras and very few accomplishments. + </p> + <p> + And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam or, better still, an + Eve, a new and greater world, that of social and moral phenomena, would be + revealed. Joys and woes, compared with which all others might seem but + faint shadows, would spring from the new relations. Happiness and sorrow + would take the place of the coarser monitors, pleasure and pain; but + conduct would still be shaped by the observation of the natural + consequences of actions; or, in other words, by the laws of the nature of + man. + </p> + <p> + To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. And + then, long before we were susceptible of any other modes of instruction, + Nature took us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its + educational influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with + Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross + disobedience. Nor should I speak of this process of education as past for + any one, be he as old as he may. For every man the world is as fresh as it + was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the + eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her patient education of + us in that great university, the universe, of which we are all members—Nature + having no Test-Acts.<a href="#linknote-54" name="linknoteref-54" + id="linknoteref-54"><small>54</small></a> + </p> + <p> + Those who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws which + govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and successful + men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the "Poll,"<a + href="#linknote-55" name="linknoteref-55" id="linknoteref-55"><small>55</small></a> + who pick up just enough to get through without much discredit. Those who + won't learn at all are plucked;<a href="#linknote-56" name="linknoteref-56" + id="linknoteref-56"><small>56</small></a> and then you can't come up + again. Nature's pluck means extermination. + </p> + <p> + Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as Nature is + concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and passed long ago. But, + like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and wasteful in + its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful disobedience—incapacity + meets with the same punishment as crime. Nature's discipline is not even a + word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. It is + left to you to find out why your ears are boxed. + </p> + <p> + The object of what we commonly call education—that education in + which man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial education—is + to make good these defects in Nature's methods; to prepare the child to + receive Nature's education, neither incapably nor ignorantly, nor with + wilful disobedience; and to understand the preliminary symptoms of her + pleasure, without waiting for the box on the ear. In short, all artificial + education ought to be an anticipation of natural education. And a liberal + education is an artificial education which has not only prepared a man to + escape the great evils of disobedience to natural laws, but has trained + him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards, which Nature scatters + with as free a hand as her penalties. + </p> + <p> + That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in + youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease + and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose + intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal + strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be + turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the + anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great + and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one + who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are + trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender + conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of + art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. + </p> + <p> + Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for he + is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will make + the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely; she as + his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious self, her + minister and interpreter. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON A PIECE OF CHALK <a href="#linknote-57" name="linknoteref-57" + id="linknoteref-57"><small>57</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + If a well were sunk at our feet in the midst of the city of Norwich, the + diggers would very soon find themselves at work in that white substance + almost too soft to be called rock, with which we are all familiar as + "chalk." + </p> + <p> + Not only here, but over the whole county of Norfolk, the well-sinker might + carry his shaft down many hundred feet without coming to the end of the + chalk; and, on the sea-coast, where the waves have pared away the face of + the land which breasts them, the scarped faces of the high cliffs are + often wholly formed of the same material. Northward, the chalk may be + followed as far as Yorkshire; on the south coast it appears abruptly in + the picturesque western bays of Dorset, and breaks into the Needles of the + Isle of Wight;<a href="#linknote-58" name="linknoteref-58" + id="linknoteref-58"><small>58</small></a> while on the shores of Kent it + supplies that long line of white cliffs to which England owes her name of + Albion. + </p> + <p> + Were the thin soil which covers it all washed away, a curved band of white + chalk, here broader, and there narrower, might be followed diagonally + across England from Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough Head <a + href="#linknote-59" name="linknoteref-59" id="linknoteref-59"><small>59</small></a> + in Yorkshire—a distance of over two hundred and eighty miles as the + crow flies. + </p> + <p> + From this band to the North Sea, on the east, and the Channel, on the + South, the chalk is largely hidden by other deposits; but, except in the + Weald <a href="#linknote-60" name="linknoteref-60" id="linknoteref-60"><small>60</small></a> + of Kent and Sussex, it enters into the very foundation of all the + south-eastern counties. + </p> + <p> + Attaining, as it does in some places, a thickness of more than a thousand + feet, the English chalk must be admitted to be a mass of considerable + magnitude. Nevertheless, it covers but an insignificant portion of the + whole area occupied by the chalk formation of the globe, which has + precisely the same general characters as ours, and is found in detached + patches, some less, and others more extensive, than the English. + </p> + <p> + Chalk occurs in north-west Ireland; it stretches over a large part of + France,—the chalk which underlies Paris being, in fact, a + continuation of that of the London basin; it runs through Denmark and + Central Europe, and extends southward to North Africa; while eastward, it + appears in the Crimea and in Syria, and may be traced as far as the shores + of the Sea of Aral, in Central Asia. + </p> + <p> + If all the points at which true chalk occurs were circumscribed, they + would lie within an irregular oval about three thousand miles in long + diameter—the area of which would be as great as that of Europe, and + would many times exceed that of the largest existing inland sea—the + Mediterranean. + </p> + <p> + Thus the chalk is no unimportant element in the masonry of the earth's + crust, and it impresses a peculiar stamp, varying with the conditions to + which it is exposed, on the scenery of the districts in which it occurs. + The undulating downs and rounded coombs, covered with sweet-grassed turf, + of our inland chalk country, have a peacefully domestic and + mutton-suggesting prettiness, but can hardly be called either grand or + beautiful. But on our southern coasts, the wall-sided cliffs, many hundred + feet high, with vast needles and pinnacles standing out in the sea, sharp + and solitary enough to serve as perches for the wary cormorant confer a + wonderful beauty and grandeur upon the chalk headlands. And, in the East, + chalk has its share in the formation of some of the most venerable of + mountain ranges, such as the Lebanon. + </p> + <p> + What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and whence + did it come? + </p> + <p> + You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not unnaturally + suppose that the attempt to solve such problems as these can lead to no + result, save that of entangling the inquirer in vague speculations, + incapable of refutation and of verification. + </p> + <p> + If such were really the case, I should have selected some other subject + than a "piece of chalk" for my discourse. But, in truth, after much + deliberation, I have been unable to think of any topic which would so well + enable me to lead you to see how solid is the foundation upon which some + of the most startling conclusions of physical science rest. + </p> + <p> + A great chapter of the history of the world is written in the chalk. Few + passages in the history of man can be supported by such an overwhelming + mass of direct and indirect evidence as that which testifies to the truth + of the fragment of the history of the globe, which I hope to enable you to + read, with your own eyes, tonight. + </p> + <p> + Let me add, that few chapters of human history have a more profound + significance for ourselves. I weigh my words well when I assert, that the + man who should know the true history of the bit of chalk which every + carpenter carries about in his breeches-pocket, though ignorant of all + other history, is likely, if he will think his knowledge out to its + ultimate results, to have a truer, and therefore a better, conception of + this wonderful universe, and of man's relation to it, than the most + learned student who is deep-read in the records of humanity and ignorant + of those of Nature. + </p> + <p> + The language of the chalk is not hard to learn, not nearly so hard as + Latin, if you only want to get at the broad features of the story it has + to tell; and I propose that we now set to work to spell that story out + together. + </p> + <p> + We all know that if we "burn" chalk the result is quicklime. Chalk, in + fact, is a compound of carbonic acid gas, and lime, and when you make it + very hot the carbonic acid flies away and the lime is left. + </p> + <p> + By this method of procedure we see the lime, but we do not see the + carbonic acid. If, on the other hand, you were to powder a little chalk + and drop it into a good deal of strong vinegar, there would be a great + bubbling and fizzing, and, finally, a clear liquid, in which no sign of + chalk would appear. Here you see the carbonic acid in the bubbles; the + lime, dissolved in the vinegar, vanishes from sight. There are a great + many other ways of showing that chalk is essentially nothing but carbonic + acid and quicklime. Chemists enunciate the result of all the experiments + which prove this, by stating that chalk is almost wholly composed of + "carbonate of lime." + </p> + <p> + It is desirable for us to start from the knowledge of this fact, though it + may not seem to help us very far towards what we seek. For carbonate of + lime is a widely spread substance, and is met with under very various + conditions. All sorts of limestones are composed of more or less pure + carbonate of lime. The crust which is often deposited by waters which have + drained through limestone rocks, in the form of what are called + stalagmites and stalactites, is carbonate of lime. Or, to take a more + familiar example, the fur on the inside of a tea-kettle is carbonate of + lime; and, for anything chemistry tells us to the contrary, the chalk + might be a kind of gigantic fur upon the bottom of the earth-kettle, which + is kept pretty hot below. + </p> + <p> + Let us try another method of making the chalk tell us its own history. To + the unassisted eye chalk looks simply like a very loose and open kind of + stone. But it is possible to grind a slice of chalk down so thin that you + can see through it—until it is thin enough, in fact, to be examined + with any magnifying power that may be thought desirable. A thin slice of + the fur of a kettle might be made in the same way. If it were examined + microscopically, it would show itself to be a more or less distinctly + laminated mineral substance and nothing more. + </p> + <p> + But the slice of chalk presents a totally different appearance when placed + under the microscope. The general mass of it is made up of very minute + granules; but, imbedded in this matrix, are innumerable bodies, some + smaller and some larger, but, on a rough average, not more than a + hundredth of an inch in diameter, having a well-defined shape and + structure. A cubic inch of some specimens of chalk may contain hundreds of + thousands of these bodies, compacted together with incalculable millions + of the granules. + </p> + <p> + The examination of a transparent slice gives a good notion of the manner + in which the components of the chalk are arranged, and of their relative + proportions. But, by rubbing up some chalk with a brush in water and then + pouring off the milky fluid, so as to obtain sediments of different + degrees of fineness, the granules and the minute rounded bodies may be + pretty well separated from one another, and submitted to microscopic + examination, either as opaque or as transparent objects. By combining the + views obtained in these various methods, each of the rounded bodies may be + proved to be a beautifully constructed calcareous fabric, made up of a + number of chambers, communicating freely with one another. The chambered + bodies are of various forms. One of the commonest is something like a + badly grown raspberry, being formed of a number of nearly globular + chambers of different sizes congregated together. It is called + Globigerina, and some specimens of chalk consist of little else than + Globigerina and granules. + </p> + <p> + Let us fix our attention upon the Globigerina. It is the spoor of the game + we are tracking. If we can learn what it is and what are the conditions of + its existence, we shall see our way to the origin and past history of the + chalk. + </p> + <p> + A suggestion which may naturally enough present itself is, that these + curious bodies are the result of some process of aggregation which has + taken place in the carbonate of lime; that, just as in winter, the rime on + our windows simulates the most delicate and elegantly arborescent foliage—proving + that the mere mineral water may, under certain conditions, assume the + outward form of organic bodies—so this mineral substance, carbonate + of lime, hidden away in the bowels of the earth, has taken the shape of + these chambered bodies. I am not raising a merely fanciful and unreal + objection. Very learned men, in former days, have even entertained the + notion that all the formed things found in rocks are of this nature; and + if no such conception is at present held to be admissible, it is because + long and varied experience has now shown that mineral matter never does + assume the form and structure we find in fossils. If any one were to try + to persuade you that an oyster-shell (which is also chiefly composed of + carbonate of lime) had crystallized out of sea-water, I suppose you would + laugh at the absurdity. Your laughter would be justified by the fact that + all experience tends to show that oyster-shells are formed by the agency + of oysters, and in no other way. And if there were no better reasons, we + should be justified, on like grounds, in believing that Globigerina is not + the product of anything but vital activity. + </p> + <p> + Happily, however, better evidence in proof of the organic nature of the + Globigerinae than that of analogy is forthcoming. It so happens that + calcareous skeletons, exactly similar to the Globigerinae of the chalk, + are being formed, at the present moment, by minute living creatures, which + flourish in multitudes, literally more numerous than the sands of the + sea-shore, over a large extent of that part of the earth's surface which + is covered by the ocean. + </p> + <p> + The history of the discovery of these living Globigerinae, and of the part + which they play in rock building, is singular enough. It is a discovery + which, like others of no less scientific importance, has arisen, + incidentally, out of work devoted to very different and exceedingly + practical interests. + </p> + <p> + When men first took to the sea, they speedily learned to look out for + shoals and rocks; and the more the burthen of their ships increased, the + more imperatively necessary it became for sailors to ascertain with + precision the depths of the waters they traversed. Out of this necessity + grew the use of the lead and sounding line; and, ultimately, + marine-surveying, which is the recording of the form of coasts and of the + depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-lead, upon charts. + </p> + <p> + At the same time, it became desirable to ascertain and to indicate the + nature of the sea-bottom, since this circumstance greatly affects its + goodness as holding ground for anchors. Some ingenious tar, whose name + deserves a better fate than the oblivion into which it has fallen, + attained this object by "arming" the bottom of the lead with a lump of + grease, to which more or less of the sand or mud, or broken shells, as the + case might be, adhered, and was brought to the surface. But, however well + adapted such an apparatus might be for rough nautical purposes, scientific + accuracy could not be expected from the armed lead, and to remedy its + defects (especially when applied to sounding in great depths) Lieut. + Brooke,<a href="#linknote-61" name="linknoteref-61" id="linknoteref-61"><small>61</small></a> + of the American Navy, some years ago invented a most ingenious machine, by + which a considerable portion of the superficial layer of the sea-bottom + can be scooped out and brought up from any depth to which the lead + descends. + </p> + <p> + In 1853, Lieut. Brooke obtained mud from the bottom of the North Atlantic, + between Newfoundland and the Azores, at a depth of more than ten thousand + feet, or two miles, by the help of this sounding apparatus. The specimens + were sent for examination to Ehrenberg <a href="#linknote-62" + name="linknoteref-62" id="linknoteref-62"><small>62</small></a> of Berlin, + and to Bailey of West Point,<a href="#linknote-63" name="linknoteref-63" + id="linknoteref-63"><small>63</small></a> and those able microscopists + found that this deep-sea mud was almost entirely composed of the skeletons + of living organisms—the greater proportion of these being just like + the Globigerinae already known to occur in the chalk. + </p> + <p> + Thus far, the work had been carried on simply in the interests of science, + but Lieut. Brooke's method of sounding acquired a high commercial value, + when the enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable <a + href="#linknote-64" name="linknoteref-64" id="linknoteref-64"><small>64</small></a> + between this country and the United States was undertaken. For it became a + matter of immense importance to know, not only the depth of the sea over + the whole line along which the cable was to be laid, but the exact nature + of the bottom, so as to guard against chances of cutting or fraying the + strands of that costly rope. The Admiralty consequently ordered Captain + Dayman, an old friend and shipmate of mine, to ascertain the depth over + the whole line of the cable, and to bring back specimens of the bottom. In + former days, such a command as this might have sounded very much like one + of the impossible things which the young prince in the Fairy Tales is + ordered to do before he can obtain the hand of the Princess. However, in + the months of June and July, 1857, my friend performed the task assigned + to him with great expedition and precision without, so far as I know, + having met with any reward of that kind. The specimens of Atlantic mud + which he procured were sent to me to be examined and reported upon.* + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * See Appendix to Captain Dayman's "Deep-sea Soundings in + the North Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland and Newfoundland, + made in H.M.S. Cyclops. Published by order of the Lords + Commissioners of the Admiralty, 1858." They have since + formed the subject of an elaborate Memoir by Messrs. Parker + and Jones, published in the Philosophical Transactions for + 1865. +</pre> + <p> + The result of all these operations is, that we know the contours and the + nature of the surface-soil covered by the North Atlantic, for a distance + of seventeen hundred miles from east to west, as well as we know that of + any part of the dry land. + </p> + <p> + It is a prodigious plain—one of the widest and most even plains in + the world. If the sea were drained off, you might drive a wagon all the + way from Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland, to Trinity Bay, in + Newfoundland. And, except upon one sharp incline about two hundred miles + from Valentia, I am not quite sure that it would even be necessary to put + the skid on, so gentle are the ascents and descents upon that long route. + From Valentia the road would lie down-hill for about 200 miles to the + point at which the bottom is now covered by 1700 fathoms of sea-water. + Then would come the central plain, more than a thousand miles wide, the + inequalities of the surface of which would be hardly perceptible, though + the depth of water upon it now varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet; and + there are places in which Mont Blanc might be sunk without showing its + peak above water. Beyond this, the ascent on the American side commences, + and gradually leads, for about 300 miles, to the Newfoundland shore. + </p> + <p> + Almost the whole of the bottom of this central plain (which extends for + many hundred miles in a north and south direction) is covered by a fine + mud, which, when brought to the surface, dries into a greyish-white + friable substance. You can write with this on a blackboard, if you are so + inclined; and, to the eye, it is quite like very soft, greyish chalk. + Examined chemically, it proves to be composed almost wholly of carbonate + of lime; and if you make a section of it, in the same way as that of the + piece of chalk was made, and view it with the microscope, it presents + innumerable Globigerinae embedded in a granular matrix. + </p> + <p> + Thus this deep-sea mud is substantially chalk. I say substantially, + because there are a good many minor differences; but as these have no + bearing on the question immediately before us,—which is the nature + of the Globigerinae of the chalk,—it is unnecessary to speak of + them. + </p> + <p> + Globigerinae of every size, from the smallest to the largest, are + associated together in the Atlantic mud, and the chambers of many are + filled by a soft animal matter. This soft substance is, in fact, the + remains of the creature to which the Globigerina shell, or rather + skeleton, owes its existence—and which is an animal of the simplest + imaginable description. It is, in fact, a mere particle of living jelly, + without defined parts of any kind—without a mouth, nerves, muscles, + or distinct organs, and only manifesting its vitality to ordinary + observation by thrusting out and retracting from all parts of its surface, + long filamentous processes, which serve for arms and legs. Yet this + amorphous particle, devoid of everything which, in the higher animals, we + call organs, is capable of feeding, growing and multiplying; of separating + from the ocean the small proportion of carbonate of lime which is + dissolved in sea-water; and of building up that substance into a skeleton + for itself, according to a pattern which can be imitated by no other known + agency. + </p> + <p> + The notion that animals can live and flourish in the sea, at the vast + depths from which apparently living Globigerinae have been brought up, + does not agree very well with our usual conceptions respecting the + conditions of animal life; and it is not so absolutely impossible as it + might at first appear to be, that the Globigerinae of the Atlantic + sea-bottom do not live and die where they are found. + </p> + <p> + As I have mentioned, the soundings from the great Atlantic plain are + almost entirely made up of Globigerinae, with the granules which have been + mentioned and some few other calcareous shells; but a small percentage of + the chalky mud—perhaps at most some five per cent of it—is of + a different nature, and consists of shells and skeletons composed of + silex, or pure flint. These silicious bodies belong partly to the lowly + vegetable organisms which are called Diatomaceae, and partly to the + minute, and extremely simple, animals, termed Radiolaria. It is quite + certain that these creatures do not live at the bottom of the ocean, but + at its surface—where they may be obtained in prodigious numbers by + the use of a properly constructed net. Hence it follows that these + silicious organisms, though they are not heavier than the lightest dust, + must have fallen, in some cases, through fifteen thousand feet of water, + before they reached their final resting-place on the ocean floor. And, + considering how large a surface these bodies expose in proportion to their + weight, it is probable that they occupy a great length of time in making + their burial journey from the surface of the Atlantic to the bottom. + </p> + <p> + But if the Radiolaria and Diatoms are thus rained upon the bottom of the + sea, from the superficial layer of its waters in which they pass their + lives, it is obviously possible that the Globigerinae may be similarly + derived; and if they were so, it would be much more easy to understand how + they obtain their supply of food than it is at present. Nevertheless, the + positive and negative evidence all points the other way. The skeletons of + the full-grown, deep-sea Globigerinae are so remarkably solid and heavy in + proportion to their surface as to seem little fitted for floating; and, as + a matter of fact, they are not to be found along with the Diatoms and + Radiolaria, in the uppermost stratum of the open ocean. + </p> + <p> + It has been observed, again, that the abundance of Globigerinae, in + proportion to other organisms, of like kind, increases with the depth of + the sea; and that deep-water Globigerinae are larger than those which live + in shallower parts of the sea; and such facts negative the supposition + that these organisms have been swept by currents from the shallows into + the deeps of the Atlantic. + </p> + <p> + It therefore seems to be hardly doubtful that these wonderful creatures + live and die at the depths in which they are found. + </p> + <p> + However, the important points for us are, that the living Globigerinae are + exclusively marine animals, the skeletons of which abound at the bottom of + deep seas; and that there is not a shadow of reason for believing that the + habits of the Globigerinae of the chalk differed from those of the + existing species. But if this be true, there is no escaping the conclusion + that the chalk itself is the dried mud of an ancient deep sea. + </p> + <p> + In working over the soundings collected by Captain Dayman, I was surprised + to find that many of what I have called the "granules" of that mud, were + not, as one might have been tempted to think at first, the mere powder and + waste of Globigerinae, but that they had a definite form and size. I + termed these bodies "coccoliths," and doubted their organic nature. Dr. + Wallich <a href="#linknote-65" name="linknoteref-65" id="linknoteref-65"><small>65</small></a> + verified my observation, and added the interesting discovery, that, not + unfrequently, bodies similar to these "coccoliths" were aggregated + together into spheroids, which he termed "coccospheres." So far as we + knew, these bodies, the nature of which is extremely puzzling and + problematical, were peculiar to the Atlantic soundings. + </p> + <p> + But, a few years ago, Mr. Sorby,<a href="#linknote-66" + name="linknoteref-66" id="linknoteref-66"><small>66</small></a> in making + a careful examination of the chalk by means of thin sections and + otherwise, observed, as Ehrenberg had done before him, that much of its + granular basis possesses a definite form. Comparing these formed particles + with those in the Atlantic soundings, he found the two to be identical; + and thus proved that the chalk, like the soundings, contains these + mysterious coccoliths and coccospheres. Here was a further and a most + interesting confirmation, from internal evidence, of the essential + identity of the chalk with modern deep-sea mud. Globigerinae, coccoliths, + and coccospheres are round as the chief constituents of both, and testify + to the general similarity of the conditions under which both have been + formed. + </p> + <p> + The evidence furnished by the hewing, facing, and superposition of the + stones of the Pyramids, that these structures were built by men, has no + greater weight than the evidence that the chalk was built by Globigerinae; + and the belief that those ancient pyramid-builders were terrestrial and + air-breathing creatures like ourselves, is it not better based than the + conviction that the chalk-makers lived in the sea? + </p> + <p> + But as our belief in the building of the Pyramids by men is not only + grounded on the internal evidences afforded by these structures, but + gathers strength from multitudinous collateral proofs, and is clinched by + the total absence of any reason for a contrary belief; so the evidence + drawn from the Globigerinae that the chalk is an ancient sea-bottom, is + fortified by innumerable independent lines of evidence; and our belief in + the truth of the conclusion to which all positive testimony tends, + receives the like negative justification from the fact that no other + hypothesis has a shadow of foundation. + </p> + <p> + It may be worth while briefly to consider a few of these collateral proofs + that the chalk was deposited at the bottom of the sea. + </p> + <p> + The great mass of the chalk is composed, as we have seen, of the skeletons + of Globigerinae, and other simple organisms, imbedded in granular matter. + Here and there, however, this hardened mud of the ancient sea reveals the + remains of higher animals which have lived and died, and left their hard + parts in the mud, just as the oysters die and leave their shells behind + them, in the mud of the present seas. + </p> + <p> + There are, at the present day, certain groups of animals which are never + found in fresh waters, being unable to live anywhere but in the sea. Such + are the corals; those corallines which are called Polycoa; those creatures + which fabricate the lamp-shells, and are called Brachiopoda; the pearly + Nautilus, and all animals allied to it; and all the forms of sea-urchins + and star-fishes. + </p> + <p> + Not only are all these creatures confined to salt water at the present + day; but, so far as our records of the past go, the conditions of their + existence have been the same: hence, their occurrence in any deposit is as + strong evidence as can be obtained, that that deposit was formed in the + sea. Now the remains of animals of all the kinds which have been + enumerated, occur in the chalk, in greater or less abundance; while not + one of those forms of shell-fish which are characteristic of fresh water + has yet been observed in it. + </p> + <p> + When we consider that the remains of more than three thousand distinct + species of aquatic animals have been discovered among the fossils of the + chalk, that the great majority of them are of such forms as are now met + with only in the sea, and that there is no reason to believe that any one + of them inhabited fresh water—the collateral evidence that the chalk + represents an ancient sea-bottom acquires as great force as the proof + derived from the nature of the chalk itself. I think you will now allow + that I did not overstate my case when I asserted that we have as strong + grounds for believing that all the vast area of dry land, at present + occupied by the chalk, was once at the bottom of the sea, as we have for + any matter of history whatever; while there is no justification for any + other belief. + </p> + <p> + No less certain it is that the time during which the countries we now call + south-east England, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, + were more or less completely covered by a deep sea, was of considerable + duration. + </p> + <p> + We have already seen that the chalk is, in places, more than a thousand + feet thick. I think you will agree with me, that it must have taken some + time for the skeletons of animalcules of a hundredth of an inch in + diameter to heap up such a mass as that. I have said that throughout the + thickness of the chalk the remains of other animals are scattered. These + remains are often in the most exquisite state of preservation. The valves + of the shell-fishes are commonly adherent; the long spines of some of the + sea-urchins, which would be detached by the smallest jar, often remain in + their places. In a word, it is certain that these animals have lived and + died when the place which they now occupy was the surface of as much of + the chalk as had then been deposited; and that each has been covered up by + the layer of Globigerina mud, upon which the creatures imbedded a little + higher up have, in like manner, lived and died. But some of these remains + prove the existence of reptiles of vast size in the chalk sea. These lived + their time, and had their ancestors and descendants, which assuredly + implies time, reptiles being of slow growth. + </p> + <p> + There is more curious evidence, again, that the process of covering up, + or, in other words, the deposit of Globigerina skeletons, did not go on + very fast. It is demonstrable that an animal of the cretaceous sea might + die, that its skeleton might lie uncovered upon the sea-bottom long enough + to lose all its outward coverings and appendages by putrefaction; and + that, after this had happened, another animal might attach itself to the + dead and naked skeleton, might grow to maturity, and might itself die + before the calcareous mud had buried the whole. + </p> + <p> + Cases of this kind are admirably described by Sir Charles Lyell.<a + href="#linknote-67" name="linknoteref-67" id="linknoteref-67"><small>67</small></a> + He speaks of the frequency with which geologists find in the chalk a + fossilized sea-urchin, to which is attached the lower valve of a Crania. + This is a kind of shell-fish, with a shell composed of two pieces, of + which, as in the oyster, one is fixed and the other free. + </p> + <p> + "The upper valve is almost invariably wanting, though occasionally found + in a perfect state of preservation in the white chalk at some distance. In + this case, we see clearly that the sea-urchin first lived from youth to + age, then died and lost its spines, which were carried away. Then the + young Crania adhered to the bared shell, grew and perished in its turn; + after which, the upper valve was separated from the lower, before the + Echinus <a href="#linknote-68" name="linknoteref-68" id="linknoteref-68"><small>68</small></a> + became enveloped in chalky mud." + </p> + <p> + A specimen in the Museum of Practical Geology, in London, still further + prolongs the period which must have elapsed between the death of the + sea-urchin, and its burial by the Globigerinae. For the outward face of + the valve of a Crania, which is attached to a sea-urchin (Micraster), is + itself overrun by an incrusting coralline, which spreads thence over more + or less of the surface of the sea-urchin. It follows that, after the upper + valve of the Crania fell off, the surface of the attached valve must have + remained exposed long enough to allow of the growth of the whole + corraline, since corallines do not live imbedded in mud. + </p> + <p> + The progress of knowledge may, one day, enable us to deduce from such + facts as these the maximum rate at which the chalk can have accumulated, + and thus to arrive at the minimum duration of the chalk period. Suppose + that the valve of the Crania upon which a coralline has fixed itself in + the way just described, is so attached to the sea-urchin that no part of + it is more than an inch above the face upon which the sea-urchin rests. + Then, as the coralline could not have fixed itself, if the Crania had been + covered up with chalk mud, and could not have lived had itself been so + covered it follows, that an inch of chalk mud could not have accumulated + within the time between the death and decay of the soft parts of the + sea-urchin and the growth of the coralline to the full size which it has + attained. If the decay of the soft parts of the sea-urchin; the + attachment, growth to maturity, and decay of the Crania; and the + subsequent attachment and growth of the coralline, took a year (which is a + low estimate enough), the accumulation of the inch of chalk must have + taken more than a year: and the deposit of a thousand feet of chalk must, + consequently, have taken more than twelve thousand years. + </p> + <p> + The foundation of all this calculation is, of course, a knowledge of the + length of time the Crania and the coralline needed to attain their full + size; and, on this head, precise knowledge is at present wanting. But + there are circumstances which tend to show, that nothing like an inch of + chalk has accumulated during the life of a Crania; and, on any probable + estimate of the length of that life, the chalk period must have had a much + longer duration than that thus roughly assigned to it. + </p> + <p> + Thus, not only is it certain that the chalk is the mud of an ancient + sea-bottom; but it is no less certain, that the chalk sea existed during + an extremely long period, though we may not be prepared to give a precise + estimate of the length of that period in years. The relative duration is + clear, though the absolute duration may not be definable. The attempt to + affix any precise date to the period at which the chalk sea began, or + ended, its existence, is baffled by difficulties of the same kind. But the + relative age of the cretaceous epoch may be determined with as great ease + and certainty as the long duration of that epoch. + </p> + <p> + You will have heard of the interesting discoveries recently made, in + various parts of Western Europe, of flint implements, obviously worked + into shape by human hands, under circumstances which show conclusively + that man is a very ancient denizen of these regions. + </p> + <p> + It has been proved that the old populations of Europe, whose existence has + been revealed to us in this way, consisted of savages, such as the + Esquimaux are now; that, in the country which is now France, they hunted + the reindeer, and were familiar with the ways of the mammoth and the + bison. The physical geography of France was in those days different from + what it is now—the river Somme,<a href="#linknote-69" + name="linknoteref-69" id="linknoteref-69"><small>69</small></a> for + instance, having cut its bed a hundred feet deeper between that time and + this; and, it is probable, that the climate was more like that of Canada + or Siberia, than that of Western Europe. + </p> + <p> + The existence of these people is forgotten even in the traditions of the + oldest historical nations. The name and fame of them had utterly vanished + until a few years back; and the amount of physical change which has been + effected since their day, renders it more than probable that, venerable as + are some of the historical nations, the workers of the chipped flints of + Hoxne or of Amiens <a href="#linknote-70" name="linknoteref-70" + id="linknoteref-70"><small>70</small></a> are to them, as they are to us, + in point of antiquity. + </p> + <p> + But, if we assign to these hoar relics of long-vanished generations of men + the greatest age that can possibly be claimed for them, they are not older + than the drift, or boulder clay, which, in comparison with the chalk, is + but a very juvenile deposit. You need go no further than your own + sea-board for evidence of this fact. At one of the most charming spots on + the coast of Norfolk, Cromer, you will see the boulder clay forming a vast + mass, which lies upon the chalk, and must consequently have come into + existence after it. Huge boulders of chalk are, in fact, included in the + clay, and have evidently been brought to the position they now occupy, by + the same agency as that which has planted blocks of syenite from Norway + side by side with them. + </p> + <p> + The chalk, then, is certainly older than the boulder clay. If you ask how + much, I will again take you no further than the same spot upon your own + coasts for evidence. I have spoken of the boulder clay and drift as + resting upon the chalk. That is not strictly true. Interposed between the + chalk and the drift is a comparatively insignificant layer, containing + vegetable matter. But that layer tells a wonderful history. It is full of + stumps of trees standing as they grew. Fir-trees are there with their + cones, and hazel-bushes with their nuts; there stand the stools of oak and + yew trees, beeches and alders. Hence this stratum is appropriately called + the "forest-bed." + </p> + <p> + It is obvious that the chalk must have been up-heaved and converted into + dry land, before the timber trees could grow upon it. As the boles of some + of these trees are from two to three feet in diameter, it is no less clear + that the dry land this formed remained in the same condition for long + ages. And not only do the remains of stately oaks and well-grown firs + testify to the duration of this condition of things, but additional + evidence to the same effect is afforded by the abundant remains of + elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotomuses and other great wild beasts, which + it has yielded to the zealous search of such men as the Rev. Mr. Gunn.<a + href="#linknote-71" name="linknoteref-71" id="linknoteref-71"><small>71</small></a> + </p> + <p> + When you look at such a collection as he has formed, and bethink you that + these elephantine bones did veritably carry their owners about, and these + great grinders crunch, in the dark woods of which the forest-bed is now + the only trace, it is impossible not to feel that they are as good + evidence of the lapse of time as the annual rings of the tree-stumps. + </p> + <p> + Thus there is a writing upon the walls of cliffs at Cromer, and whoso runs + may read it. It tells us, with an authority which cannot be impeached, + that the ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and remained dry + land, until it was covered with forest, stocked with the great game whose + spoils have rejoiced your geologists. How long it remained in that + condition cannot be said; but "the whirligig of time <a href="#linknote-72" + name="linknoteref-72" id="linknoteref-72"><small>72</small></a> brought + its revenges" in those days as in these. That dry land, with the bones and + teeth of generations of long-lived elephants, hidden away among the + gnarled roots and dry leaves of its ancient trees, sank gradually to the + bottom of the icy sea, which covered it with huge masses of drift and + boulder clay. Sea-beasts, such as the walrus, now restricted to the + extreme north, paddled about where birds had twittered among the topmost + twigs of the fir-trees. How long this state of things endured we know not, + but at length it came to an end. The upheaved glacial mud hardened into + the soil of modern Norfolk. Forests grew once more, the wolf and the + beaver replaced the reindeer and the elephant; and at length what we call + the history of England dawned. + </p> + <p> + Thus you have within the limits of your own county, proof that the chalk + can justly claim a very much greater antiquity than even the oldest + physical traces of mankind. But we may go further and demonstrate, by + evidence of the same authority as that which testifies to the existence of + the father of men, that the chalk is vastly older than Adam himself. + </p> + <p> + The Book of Genesis informs us that Adam, immediately upon his creation, + and before the appearance of Eve, was placed in the Garden of Eden. The + problem of the geographical position of Eden has greatly vexed the spirits + of the learned in such matters, but there is one point respecting which, + so far as I know, no commentator has ever raised a doubt. This is, that of + the four rivers which are said to run out of it, Euphrates and Hiddekel <a + href="#linknote-73" name="linknoteref-73" id="linknoteref-73"><small>73</small></a> + are identical with the rivers now known by the names of Euphrates and + Tigris. + </p> + <p> + But the whole country in which these mighty rivers take their origin, and + through which they run, is composed of rocks which are either of the same + age as the chalk, or of later date. So that the chalk must not only have + been formed, but, after its formation, the time required for the deposit + of these later rocks, and for their upheaval into dry land, must have + elapsed, before the smallest brook which feeds the swift stream of "the + great river, the river of Babylon,"<a href="#linknote-74" + name="linknoteref-74" id="linknoteref-74"><small>74</small></a> began to + flow. + </p> + <p> + Thus, evidence which cannot be rebutted, and which need not be + strengthened, though if time permitted I might indefinitely increase its + quantity, compels you to believe that the earth, from the time of the + chalk to the present day, has been the theatre of a series of changes as + vast in their amount, as they were slow in their progress. The area on + which we stand has been first sea and then land, for at least four + alternations; and has remained in each of these conditions for a period of + great length. + </p> + <p> + Nor have these wonderful metamorphoses of sea into land, and of land into + sea, been confined to one corner of England. During the chalk period, or + "cretaceous epoch," not one of the present great physical features of the + globe was in existence. Our great mountain ranges, Pyrenees, Alps, + Himalayas, Andes, have all been upheaved since the chalk was deposited, + and the cretaceous sea flowed over the sites of Sinai and Ararat. + </p> + <p> + All this is certain, because rocks of cretaceous, or still later, date + have shared in the elevatory movements which gave rise to these mountain + chains; and may be found perched up, in some cases, many thousand feet + high upon their flanks. And evidence of equal cogency demonstrates that, + though, in Norfolk, the forest-bed rests directly upon the chalk, yet it + does so, not because the period at which the forest grew immediately + followed that at which the chalk was formed, but because an immense lapse + of time, represented elsewhere by thousands of feet of rock, is not + indicated at Cromer. + </p> + <p> + I must ask you to believe that there is no less conclusive proof that a + still more prolonged succession of similar changes occurred, before the + chalk was deposited. Nor have we any reason to think that the first term + in the series of these changes is known. The oldest sea-beds preserved to + us are sands, and mud, and pebbles, the wear and tear of rocks which were + formed in still older oceans. + </p> + <p> + But, great as is the magnitude of these physical changes of the world, + they have been accompanied by a no less striking series of modifications + in its living inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + All the great classes of animals, beasts of the field, fowls of the air, + creeping things, and things which dwell in the waters, flourished upon the + globe long ages before the chalk was deposited. Very few, however, if any, + of these ancient forms of animal life were identical with those which now + live. Certainly not one of the higher animals was of the same species as + any of those now in existence. The beasts of the field, in the days before + the chalk, were not our beasts of the field, nor the fowls of the air such + as those which the eye of men has seen flying, unless his antiquity dates + infinitely further back than we at present surmise. If we could be carried + back into those times, we should be as one suddenly set down in Australia + before it was colonized. We should see mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, + insects, snails, and the like, clearly recognisable as such, and yet not + one of them would be just the same as those with which we are familiar, + and many would be extremely different. + </p> + <p> + From that time to the present, the population of the world has undergone + slow and gradual, but incessant changes. There has been no grand + catastrophe—no destroyer has swept away the forms of life of one + period, and replaced them by a totally new creation; but one species has + vanished and another has taken its place; creatures of one type of + structure have diminished, those of another have increased, as time has + passed on. And thus, while the differences between the living creatures of + the time before the chalk and those of the present day appear startling, + if placed side by side, we are led from one to the other by the most + gradual progress, if we follow the course of Nature through the whole + series of those relics of her operations which she has left behind. + </p> + <p> + And it is by the population of the chalk sea that the ancient and the + modern inhabitants of the world are most completely connected. The groups + which are dying out flourish, side by side, with the groups which are now + the dominant forms of life. + </p> + <p> + Thus the chalk contains remains of those strange flying and swimming + reptiles, the pterodactyl, the ichthyosaurus, and the plesiosaurus, which + are found in no later deposits, but abounded in preceding ages. The + chambered shells called ammonites and belemnites, which are so + characteristic of the period preceding the cretaceous, in like manner die + with it. + </p> + <p> + But, amongst these fading remainders of a previous state of things, are + some very modern forms of life, looking like Yankee pedlars among a tribe + of Red Indians. Crocodiles of modern type appear; bony fishes, many of + them very similar to existing species almost supplant the forms of fish + which predominate in more ancient seas; and many kinds of living shellfish + first become known to us in the chalk. The vegetation acquires a modern + aspect. A few living animals are not even distinguishable as species, from + those which existed at that remote epoch. The Globigerina of the present + day, for example, is not different specifically from that of the chalk; + and the same may be said of many other Foraminifera. I think it probable + that critical and unprejudiced examination will show that more than one + species of much higher animals have had a similar longevity; but the only + example, which I can at present give confidently is the snake's-head + lamp-shell (Terebratulina caput serpentis), which lives in our English + seas and abounded (as Terebratulina striata of authors) in the chalk. + </p> + <p> + The longest line of human ancestry must hide its diminished head before + the pedigree of this insignificant shell-fish. We Englishmen are proud to + have an ancestor who was present at the Battle of Hastings. The ancestors + of Terebratulina caput serpentis may have been present at a battle of + Ichthyosauria in that part of the sea which, when the chalk was forming, + flowed over the site of Hastings. While all around has changed, this + Terebratulina has peacefully propagated its species from generation to + generation, and stands to this day, as a living testimony to the + continuity of the present with the past history of the globe. + </p> + <p> + Up to this moment I have stated, so far as I know, nothing but + well-authenticated facts, and the immediate conclusions which they force + upon the mind. + </p> + <p> + But the mind is so constituted that it does not willingly rest in facts + and immediate causes, but seeks always after a knowledge of the remoter + links in the chain of causation. + </p> + <p> + Taking the many changes of any given spot of the earth's surface, from sea + to land and from land to sea, as an established fact, we cannot refrain + from asking ourselves how these changes have occurred. And when we have + explained them—as they must be explained—by the alternate slow + movements of elevation and depression which have affected the crust of the + earth, we go still further back, and ask, Why these movements? + </p> + <p> + I am not certain that any one can give you a satisfactory answer to that + question. Assuredly I cannot. All that can be said, for certain, is, that + such movements are part of the ordinary course of nature, inasmuch as they + are going on at the present time. Direct proof may be given, that some + parts of the land of the northern hemisphere are at this moment insensibly + rising and others insensibly sinking; and there is indirect, but perfectly + satisfactory, proof, that an enormous area now covered by the Pacific has + been deepened thousands of feet, since the present inhabitants of that sea + came into existence. + </p> + <p> + Thus there is not a shadow of a reason for believing that the physical + changes of the globe, in past times have been effected by other than + natural causes. + </p> + <p> + Is there any more reason for believing that the concomitant modifications + in the forms of the living inhabitants of the globe have been brought + about in other ways? + </p> + <p> + Before attempting to answer this question, let us try to form a distinct + mental picture of what has happened, in some special case. + </p> + <p> + The crocodiles are animals which, as a group, have a very vast antiquity. + They abounded ages before the chalk was deposited; they throng the rivers + in warm climates, at the present day. There is a difference in the form of + the joints of the back-bone, and in some minor particulars, between the + crocodiles of the present epoch and those which lived before the chalk; + but in the cretaceous epoch, as I have already mentioned, the crocodiles + had assumed the modern type of structure. Notwithstanding this, the + crocodiles of the chalk are not identically the same as those which lived + in the times called "older tertiary," which succeeded the cretaceous + epoch; and the crocodiles of the older tertiaries are not identical with + those of the newer tertiaries, nor are these identical with existing + forms. I leave open the question whether particular species may have lived + on from epoch to epoch. But each epoch has had its peculiar crocodiles; + though all, since the chalk, have belonged to the modern type, and differ + simply in their proportions, and in such structural particulars as are + discernible only to trained eyes. + </p> + <p> + How is the existence of this long succession of different species of + crocodiles to be accounted for? + </p> + <p> + Only two suppositions seem to be open to us—Either each species of + crocodile has been specially created, or it has arisen out of some + pre-existing form by the operation of natural causes. + </p> + <p> + Choose your hypothesis; I have chosen mine. I can find no warranty for + believing in the distinct creation of a score of successive species of + crocodiles in the course of countless ages of time. Science gives no + countenance to such a wild fancy; nor can even the perverse ingenuity of a + commentator pretend to discover this sense, in the simple words in which + the writer of Genesis records the proceedings of the fifth and sixth days + of the Creation. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, I see no good reason for doubting the necessary + alternative, that all these varied species have been evolved from + pre-existing crocodilian forms, by the operation of causes as completely a + part of the common order of nature, as those which have effected the + changes of the inorganic world. + </p> + <p> + Few will venture to affirm that the reasoning which applies to crocodiles + loses its force among other animals, or among plants. If one series of + species has come into existence by the operation of natural causes, it + seems folly to deny that all may have arisen in the same way. + </p> + <p> + A small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I were to put the bit + of chalk with which we started into the hot but obscure flame of burning + hydrogen, it would presently shine like the sun. It seems to me that this + physical metamorphosis is no false image of what has been the result of + our subjecting it to a jet of fervent, though nowise brilliant, thought + to-night. It has become luminous, and its clear rays, penetrating the + abyss of the remote past, have brought within our ken some stages of the + evolution of the earth. And in the shifting "without haste, but without + rest"<a href="#linknote-75" name="linknoteref-75" id="linknoteref-75"><small>75</small></a> + of the land and sea, as in the endless variation of the forms assumed by + living beings, we have observed nothing but the natural product of the + forces originally possessed by the substance of the universe. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION <a href="#linknote-76" + name="linknoteref-76" id="linknoteref-76"><small>76</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + I know quite well that launching myself into this discussion <a + href="#linknote-77" name="linknoteref-77" id="linknoteref-77"><small>77</small></a> + is a very dangerous operation; that it is a very large subject, and one + which is difficult to deal with, however much I may trespass upon your + patience in the time allotted to me. But the discussion is so fundamental, + it is so completely impossible to make up one's mind on these matters + until one has settled the question, that I will even venture to make the + experiment. A great lawyer-statesman and philosopher of a former age—I + mean Francis Bacon <a href="#linknote-78" name="linknoteref-78" + id="linknoteref-78"><small>78</small></a>—said that truth came out + of error much more rapidly than it came out of confusion. There is a + wonderful truth in that saying. Next to being right in this world, the + best of all things is to be clearly and definitely wrong, because you will + come out somewhere. If you go buzzing about between right and wrong, + vibrating and fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are absolutely + and thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some of these days, have + the extreme good fortune of knocking your head against a fact, and that + sets you all straight again. So I will not trouble myself as to whether I + may be right or wrong in what I am about to say, but at any rate I hope to + be clear and definite; and then you will be able to judge for yourselves + whether, in following out the train of thought I have to introduce, you + knock your heads against facts or not. + </p> + <p> + I take it that the whole object of education is, in the first place, to + train the faculties of the young in such a manner as to give their + possessors the best chance of being happy <a href="#linknote-79" + name="linknoteref-79" id="linknoteref-79"><small>79</small></a> and useful + in their generation; and, in the second place, to furnish them with the + most important portions of that immense capitalised experience of the + human race which we call knowledge of various kinds. I am using the term + knowledge in its widest possible sense; and the question is, what subjects + to select by training and discipline, in which the object I have just + defined may be best attained. + </p> + <p> + I must call your attention further to this fact, that all the subjects of + our thoughts—all feelings and propositions (leaving aside our + sensations as the mere materials and occasions of thinking and feeling), + all our mental furniture—may be classified under one of two heads—as + either within the province of the intellect, something that can be put + into propositions and affirmed or denied; or as within the province of + feeling, or that which, before the name was defiled, was called the + aesthetic side of our nature, and which can neither be proved nor + disproved, but only felt and known. + </p> + <p> + According to the classification which I have put before you, then, the + subjects of all knowledge are divisible into the two groups, matters of + science and matters of art; for all things with which the reasoning + faculty alone is occupied, come under the province of science; and in the + broadest sense, and not in the narrow and technical sense in which we are + now accustomed to use the word art, all things feelable, all things which + stir our emotions, come under the term of art, in the sense of the + subject-matter of the aesthetic faculty. So that we are shut up to this—that + the business of education is, in the first place, to provide the young + with the means and the habit of observation; and, secondly, to supply the + subject-matter of knowledge either in the shape of science or of art, or + of both combined. + </p> + <p> + Now, it is a very remarkable fact—but it is true of most things in + this world—that there is hardly anything one-sided, or of one + nature; and it is not immediately obvious what of the things that interest + us may be regarded as pure science, and what may be regarded as pure art. + It may be that there are some peculiarly constituted persons who, before + they have advanced far into the depths of geometry, find artistic beauty + about it; but, taking the generality of mankind, I think it may be said + that, when they begin to learn mathematics, their whole souls are absorbed + in tracing the connection between the premisses and the conclusion, and + that to them geometry is pure science. So I think it may be said that + mechanics and osteology are pure science. On the other hand, melody in + music is pure art. You cannot reason about it; there is no proposition + involved in it. So, again, in the pictorial art, an arabesque, or a + "harmony in grey,"<a href="#linknote-80" name="linknoteref-80" + id="linknoteref-80"><small>80</small></a> touches none but the aesthetic + faculty. But a great mathematician, and even many persons who are not + great mathematicians, will tell you that they derive immense pleasure from + geometrical reasonings. Everybody knows mathematicians speak of solutions + and problems as "elegant," and they tell you that a certain mass of mystic + symbols is "beautiful, quite lovely." Well, you do not see it. They do see + it, because the intellectual process, the process of comprehending the + reasons symbolised by these figures and these signs, confers upon them a + sort of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual symmetry. Take a science + of which I may speak with more confidence, and which is the most + attractive of those I am concerned with. It is what we call morphology, + which consists in tracing out the unity in variety of the infinitely + diversified structures of animals and plants. I cannot give you any + example of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely real than a + pleasure of this kind—the pleasure which arises in one's mind when a + whole mass of different structures run into one harmony as the expression + of a central law. That is where the province of art overlays and embraces + the province of intellect. And, if I may venture to express an opinion on + such a subject, the great majority of forms of art are not in the sense + what I just now defined them to be—pure art; but they derive much of + their quality from simultaneous and even unconscious excitement of the + intellect. + </p> + <p> + When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so now; and it so + happened that I had the opportunity of hearing much good music. Among + other things, I had abundant opportunities of hearing that great old + master, Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well—though I knew + nothing about music then, and, I may add, know nothing whatever about it + now—the intense satisfaction and delight which I had in listening, + by the hour together, to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure which remains + with me, I am glad to think; but, of late years, I have tried to find out + the why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me that the pleasure + derived from musical compositions of this kind is essentially of the same + nature as that which is derived from pursuits which are commonly regarded + as purely intellectual. I mean, that the source of pleasure is exactly the + same as in most of my problems in morphology—that you have the theme + in one of the old master's works followed out in all its endless + variations, always appearing and always reminding you of unity in variety. + So in painting; what is called "truth to nature" is the intellectual + element coming in, and truth to nature depends entirely upon the + intellectual culture of the person to whom art is addressed. If you are in + Australia, you may get credit for being a good artist—I mean among + the natives—if you can draw a kangaroo after a fashion. But, among + men of higher civilisation, the intellectual knowledge we possess brings + its criticism into our appreciation of works of art, and we are obliged to + satisfy it, as well as the mere sense of beauty in colour and in outline. + And so, the higher the culture and information of those whom art + addresses, the more exact and precise must be what we call its "truth to + nature." + </p> + <p> + If we turn to literature, the same thing is true, and you find works of + literature which may be said to be pure art. A little song of Shakespeare + or of Goethe is pure art; it is exquisitely beautiful, although its + intellectual content may be nothing. A series of pictures is made to pass + before your mind by the meaning of words, and the effect is a melody of + ideas. Nevertheless, the great mass of the literature we esteem is valued, + not merely because of having artistic form, but because of its + intellectual content; and the value is the higher the more precise, + distinct, and true is that intellectual content. And, if you will let me + for a moment speak of the very highest forms of literature, do we not + regard them as highest simply because the more we know the truer they + seem, and the more competent we are to appreciate beauty the more + beautiful they are? No man ever understands Shakespeare until he is old, + though the youngest may admire him, the reason being that he satisfies the + artistic instinct of the youngest and harmonises with the ripest and + richest experience of the oldest. + </p> + <p> + I have said this much to draw your attention to what, in my mind, lies at + the root of all this matter, and at the understanding of one another by + the men of science on the one hand, and the men of literature, and + history, and art, on the other. It is not a question whether one order of + study or another should predominate. It is a question of what topics of + education you shall select which will combine all the needful elements in + such due proportion as to give the greatest amount of food, support, and + encouragement to those faculties which enable us to appreciate truth, and + to profit by those sources of innocent happiness which are open to us, + and, at the same time, to avoid that which is bad, and coarse, and ugly, + and keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls and dangers which beset those + who break through the natural or moral laws. + </p> + <p> + I address myself, in this spirit, to the consideration of the question of + the value of purely literary education. Is it good and sufficient, or is + it insufficient and bad? Well, here I venture to say that there are + literary educations and literary educations. If I am to understand by that + term the education that was current in the great majority of middle-class + schools, and upper schools too, in this country when I was a boy, and + which consisted absolutely and almost entirely in keeping boys for eight + or ten years at learning the rules of Latin and Greek grammar, construing + certain Latin and Greek authors, and possibly making verses which, had + they been English verses, would have been condemned as abominable + doggerel,—if that is what you mean by liberal education, then I say + it is scandalously insufficient and almost worthless. My reason for saying + so is not from the point of view of science at all, but from the point of + view of literature. I say the thing professes to be literary education + that is not a literary education at all. It was not literature at all that + was taught, but science in a very bad form. It is quite obvious that + grammar is science and not literature. The analysis of a text by the help + of the rules of grammar is just as much a scientific operation as the + analysis of a chemical compound by the help of the rules of chemical + analysis. There is nothing that appeals to the aesthetic faculty in that + operation; and I ask multitudes of men of my own age, who went through + this process, whether they ever had a conception of art or literature + until they obtained it for themselves after leaving school? Then you may + say, "If that is so, if the education was scientific, why cannot you be + satisfied with it?" I say, because although it is a scientific training, + it is of the most inadequate and inappropriate kind. If there is any good + at all in scientific education it is that men should be trained, as I said + before, to know things for themselves at first hand, and that they should + understand every step of the reason of that which they do. + </p> + <p> + I desire to speak with the utmost respect of that science—philology—of + which grammar is a part and parcel; yet everybody knows that grammar, as + it is usually learned at school, affords no scientific training. It is + taught just as you would teach the rules of chess or draughts. On the + other hand, if I am to understand by a literary education the study of the + literatures of either ancient or modern nations—but especially those + of antiquity, and especially that of ancient Greece; if this literature is + studied, not merely from the point of view of philological science, and + its practical application to the interpretation of texts, but as an + exemplification of and commentary upon the principles of art; if you look + upon the literature of a people as a chapter in the development of the + human mind, if you work out this in a broad spirit, and with such + collateral references to morals and politics, and physical geography, and + the like as are needful to make you comprehend what the meaning of ancient + literature and civilisation is,—then, assuredly, it affords a + splendid and noble education. But I still think it is susceptible of + improvement, and that no man will ever comprehend the real secret of the + difference between the ancient world and our present time, unless he has + learned to see the difference which the late development of physical + science has made between the thought of this day and the thought of that, + and he will never see that difference, unless he has some practical + insight into some branches of physical science; and you must remember that + a literary education such as that which I have just referred to, is out of + the reach of those whose school life is cut short at sixteen or seventeen. + </p> + <p> + But, you will say, all this is fault-finding; let us hear what you have in + the way of positive suggestion. Then I am bound to tell you that, if I + could make a clean sweep of everything—I am very glad I cannot + because I might, and probably should, make mistakes,—but if I could + make a clean sweep of everything and start afresh, I should, in the first + place, secure that training of the young in reading and writing, and in + the habit of attention and observation, both to that which is told them, + and that which they see, which everybody agrees to. But in addition to + that, I should make it absolutely necessary for everybody, for a longer or + shorter period, to learn to draw. Now, you may say, there are some people + who cannot draw, however much they may be taught. I deny that in toto, + because I never yet met with anybody who could not learn to write. Writing + is a form of drawing; therefore if you give the same attention and trouble + to drawing as you do to writing, depend upon it, there is nobody who + cannot be made to draw, more or less well. Do not misapprehend me. I do + not say for one moment you would make an artistic draughtsman. Artists are + not made; they grow. You may improve the natural faculty in that + direction, but you cannot make it; but you can teach simple drawing, and + you will find it an implement of learning of extreme value. I do not think + its value can be exaggerated, because it gives you the means of training + the young in attention and accuracy, which are the two things in which all + mankind are more deficient than in any other mental quality whatever. The + whole of my life has been spent in trying to give my proper attention to + things and to be accurate, and I have not succeeded as well as I could + wish; and other people, I am afraid, are not much more fortunate. You + cannot begin this habit too early, and I consider there is nothing of so + great a value as the habit of drawing, to secure those two desirable ends. + </p> + <p> + Then we come to the subject-matter, whether scientific or aesthetic, of + education, and I should naturally have no question at all about teaching + the elements of physical science of the kind I have sketched, in a + practical manner; but among scientific topics, using the word scientific + in the broadest sense, I would also include the elements of the theory of + morals and of that of political and social life, which, strangely enough, + it never seems to occur to anybody to teach a child. I would have the + history of our own country, and of all the influences which have been + brought to bear upon it, with incidental geography, not as a mere + chronicle of reigns and battles, but as a chapter in the development of + the race, and the history of civilisation. + </p> + <p> + Then with respect to aesthetic knowledge and discipline, we have happily + in the English language one of the most magnificent storehouses of + artistic beauty and of models of literary excellence which exists in the + world at the present time. I have said before, and I repeat it here, that + if a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out of his Bible, + and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes,<a href="#linknote-81" + name="linknoteref-81" id="linknoteref-81"><small>81</small></a> and Bishop + Berkeley,<a href="#linknote-82" name="linknoteref-82" id="linknoteref-82"><small>82</small></a> + to mention only a few of our illustrious writers—I say, if he cannot + get it out of those writers he cannot get it out of anything; and I would + assuredly devote a very large portion of the time of every English child + to the careful study of the models of English writing of such varied and + wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is still more important and still + more neglected, the habit of using that language with precision, with + force, and with art. I fancy we are almost the only nation in the world + who seem to think that composition comes by nature. The French attend to + their own language, the Germans study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem + to think it is worth their while. Nor would I fail to include, in the + course of study I am sketching, translations of all the best works of + antiquity, or of the modern world. It is a very desirable thing to read + Homer in Greek; but if you don't happen to know Greek, the next best thing + we can do is to read as good a translation of it as we have recently been + furnished with in prose.<a href="#linknote-83" name="linknoteref-83" + id="linknoteref-83"><small>83</small></a> You won't get all you would get + from the original, but you may get a great deal; and to refuse to know + this great deal because you cannot get all, seems to be as sensible as for + a hungry man to refuse bread because he cannot get partridge. Finally, I + would add instruction in either music or painting, or, if the child should + be so unhappy, as sometimes happens, as to have no faculty for either of + those, and no possibility of doing anything in any artistic sense with + them, then I would see what could be done with literature alone; but I + would provide, in the fullest sense, for the development of the aesthetic + side of the mind. In my judgment, those are all the essentials of + education for an English child. With that outfit, such as it might be made + in the time given to education which is within the reach of nine-tenths of + the population—with that outfit, an Englishman, within the limits of + English life, is fitted to go anywhere, to occupy the highest positions, + to fill the highest offices of the State, and to become distinguished in + practical pursuits, in science, or in art. For, if he have the opportunity + to learn all those things, and have his mind disciplined in the various + directions the teaching of those topics would have necessitated, then, + assuredly, he will be able to pick up, on his road through life, all the + rest of the intellectual baggage he wants. + </p> + <p> + If the educational time at our disposition were sufficient, there are one + or two things I would add to those I have just now called the essentials; + and perhaps you will be surprised to hear, though I hope you will not, + that I should add, not more science, but one, or, if possible, two + languages. The knowledge of some other language than one's own is, in + fact, of singular intellectual value. Many of the faults and mistakes of + the ancient philosophers are traceable to the fact that they knew no + language but their own, and were often led into confusing the symbol with + the thought which it embodied. I think it is Locke <a href="#linknote-84" + name="linknoteref-84" id="linknoteref-84"><small>84</small></a> who says + that one-half of the mistakes of philosophers have arisen from questions + about words; and one of the safest ways of delivering yourself from the + bondage of words is, to know how ideas look in words to which you are not + accustomed. That is one reason for the study of language; another reason + is, that it opens new fields in art and in science. Another is the + practical value of such knowledge; and yet another is this, that if your + languages are properly chosen, from the time of learning the additional + languages you will know your own language better than ever you did. So, I + say, if the time given to education permits, add Latin and German. Latin, + because it is the key to nearly one-half of English and to all the Romance + languages; and German, because it is the key to almost all the remainder + of English, and helps you to understand a race from whom most of us have + sprung, and who have a character and a literature of a fateful force in + the history of the world, such as probably has been allotted to those of + no other people, except the Jews, the Greeks, and ourselves. Beyond these, + the essential and the eminently desirable elements of all education, let + each man take up his special line—the historian devote himself to + his history, the man of science to his science, the man of letters to his + culture of that kind, and the artist to his special pursuit. + </p> + <p> + Bacon has prefaced some of his works with no more than this: Franciscus + Bacon sic cogitavit;<a href="#linknote-85" name="linknoteref-85" + id="linknoteref-85"><small>85</small></a> let "sic cogitavi" be the + epilogue to what I have ventured to address to you to-night. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION <a href="#linknote-86" + name="linknoteref-86" id="linknoteref-86"><small>86</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of + the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode at + which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and exact. There + is no more difference, but there is just the same kind of difference, + between the mental operations of a man of science and those of an ordinary + person, as there is between the operations and methods of a baker or of a + butcher weighing out his goods in common scales, and the operations of a + chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis by means of his + balance and finely graduated weights. It is not that the action of the + scales in the one case, and the balance in the other, differ in the + principles of their construction or manner of working; but the beam of one + is set on an infinitely finer axis than the other, and of course turns by + the addition of a much smaller weight. + </p> + <p> + You will understand this better, perhaps, if I give you some familiar + example. You have all heard it repeated, I dare say, that men of science + work by means of induction and deduction, and that by the help of these + operations, they, in a sort of sense, wring from Nature certain other + things, which are called natural laws, and causes, and that out of these, + by some cunning skill of their own, they build up hypotheses and theories. + And it is imagined by many, that the operations of the common mind can be + by no means compared with these processes, and that they have to be + acquired by a sort of special apprenticeship to the craft. To hear all + these large words, you would think that the mind of a man of science must + be constituted differently from that of his fellow men; but if you will + not be frightened by terms, you will discover that you are quite wrong, + and that all these terrible apparatus <a href="#linknote-87" + name="linknoteref-87" id="linknoteref-87"><small>87</small></a> are being + used by yourselves every day and every hour of your lives. + </p> + <p> + There is a well-known incident in one of Moliere's plays,<a + href="#linknote-88" name="linknoteref-88" id="linknoteref-88"><small>88</small></a> + where the author makes the hero express unbounded delight on being told + that he had been talking prose during the whole of his life. In the same + way, I trust, that you will take comfort, and be delighted with + yourselves, on the discovery that you have been acting on the principles + of inductive and deductive philosophy during the same period. Probably + there is not one here who has not in the course of the day had occasion to + set in motion a complex train of reasoning, of the very same kind, though + differing of course in degree, as that which a scientific man goes through + in tracing the causes of natural phenomena. + </p> + <p> + A very trivial circumstance will serve to exemplify this. Suppose you go + into a fruiterer's shop, wanting an apple,—you take up one, and, on + biting it, you find it is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard + and green. You take up another one, and that too is hard, green, and sour. + The shopman offers you a third; but, before biting it, you examine it, and + find that it is hard and green, and you immediately say that you will not + have it, as it must be sour, like those that you have already tried. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more simple than that, you think; but if you will take the + trouble to analyse and trace out into its logical elements what has been + done by the mind, you will be greatly surprised. In the first place you + have performed the operation of induction. You found that, in two + experiences, hardness and greenness in apples went together with sourness. + It was so in the first case, and it was confirmed by the second. True, it + is a very small basis, but still it is enough to make an induction from; + you generalise the facts, and you expect to find sourness in apples where + you get hardness and greenness. You found upon that a general law that all + hard and green apples are sour; and that, so far as it goes, is a perfect + induction. Well, having got your natural law in this way, when you are + offered another apple which you find is hard and green, you say, "All hard + and green apples are sour; this apple is hard and green, therefore this + apple is sour." That train of reasoning is what logicians call a + syllogism, and has all its various parts and terms,—its major + premiss, its minor premiss and its conclusion. And, by the help of further + reasoning, which, if drawn out, would have to be exhibited in two or three + other syllogisms, you arrive at your final determination, "I will not have + that apple." So that, you see, you have, in the first place, established a + law by induction, and upon that you have founded a deduction, and reasoned + out the special particular case. Well now, suppose, having got your + conclusion of the law, that at some time afterwards, you are discussing + the qualities of apples with a friend: you will say to him, "It is a very + curious thing,—but I find that all hard and green apples are sour!" + Your friend says to you, "But how do you know that?" You at once reply, + "Oh, because I have tried them over and over again, and have always found + them to be so." Well, if we were talking science instead of common sense, + we should call that an experimental verification. And, if still opposed, + you go further, and say, "I have heard from the people in Somersetshire + and Devonshire, where a large number of apples are grown, that they have + observed the same thing. It is also found to be the case in Normandy, and + in North America. In short, I find it to be the universal experience of + mankind wherever attention has been directed to the subject." Whereupon, + your friend, unless he is a very unreasonable man, agrees with you, and is + convinced that you are quite right in the conclusion you have drawn. He + believes, although perhaps he does not know he believes it, that the more + extensive verifications are,—that the more frequently experiments + have been made, and results of the same kind arrived at,—that the + more varied the conditions under which the same results are attained, the + more certain is the ultimate conclusion, and he disputes the question no + further. He sees that the experiment has been tried under all sorts of + conditions, as to time, place, and people, with the same result; and he + says with you, therefore, that the law you have laid down must be a good + one, and he must believe it. + </p> + <p> + In science we do the same thing;—the philosopher exercises precisely + the same faculties, though in a much more delicate manner. In scientific + inquiry it becomes a matter of duty to expose a supposed law to every + possible kind of verification, and to take care, moreover, that this is + done intentionally, and not left to a mere accident, as in the case of the + apples. And in science, as in common life, our confidence in a law is in + exact proportion to the absence of variation in the result of our + experimental verifications. For instance, if you let go your grasp of an + article you may have in your hand, it will immediately fall to the ground. + That is a very common verification of one of the best established laws of + nature—that of gravitation. The method by which men of science + establish the existence of that law is exactly the same as that by which + we have established the trivial proposition about the sourness of hard and + green apples. But we believe it in such an extensive, thorough, and + unhesitating manner because the universal experience of mankind verifies + it, and we can verify it ourselves at any time; and that is the strongest + possible foundation on which any natural law can rest. + </p> + <p> + So much, then, by way of proof that the method of establishing laws in + science is exactly the same as that pursued in common life. Let us now + turn to another matter (though really it is but another phase of the same + question), and that is, the method by which, from the relations of certain + phenomena, we prove that some stand in the position of causes towards the + others. + </p> + <p> + I want to put the case clearly before you, and I will therefore show you + what I mean by another familiar example. I will suppose that one of you, + on coming down in the morning to the parlor of your house, finds that a + tea-pot and some spoons which had been left in the room on the previous + evening are gone,—the window is open, and you observe the mark of a + dirty hand on the window-frame, and perhaps, in addition to that, you + notice the impress of a hob-nailed shoe on the gravel outside. All these + phenomena have struck your attention instantly, and before two seconds + have passed you say, "Oh, somebody has broken open the window, entered the + room, and run off with the spoons and the tea-pot!" That speech is out of + your mouth in a moment. And you will probably add, "I know there has; I am + quite sure of it!" You mean to say exactly what you know; but in reality + you are giving expression to what is, in all essential particulars, an + hypothesis. You do not KNOW it at all; it is nothing but an hypothesis + rapidly framed in your own mind. And it is an hypothesis founded on a long + train of inductions and deductions. + </p> + <p> + What are those inductions and deductions, and how have you got at this + hypothesis? You have observed in the first place, that the window is open; + but by a train of reasoning involving many inductions and deductions, you + have probably arrived long before at the general law—and a very good + one it is—that windows do not open of themselves; and you therefore + conclude that something has opened the window. A second general law that + you have arrived at in the same way is, that tea-pots and spoons do not go + out of a window spontaneously, and you are satisfied that, as they are not + now where you left them, they have been removed. In the third place, you + look at the marks on the windowsill, and the shoe-marks outside, and you + say that in all previous experience the former kind of mark has never been + produced by anything else but the hand of a human being; and the same + experience shows that no other animal but man at present wears shoes with + hob-nails in them such as would produce the marks in the gravel. I do not + know, even if we could discover any of those "missing links" that are + talked about, that they would help us to any other conclusion! At any rate + the law which states our present experience is strong enough for my + present purpose. You next reach the conclusion that, as these kind <a + href="#linknote-89" name="linknoteref-89" id="linknoteref-89"><small>89</small></a> + of marks have not been left by any other animal than man, or are liable to + be formed in any other way than a man's hand and shoe, the marks in + question have been formed by a man in that way. You have, further, a + general law, founded on observation and experience, and that, too, is, I + am sorry to say, a very universal and unimpeachable one,—that some + men are thieves; and you assume at once from all these premisses—and + that is what constitutes your hypothesis—that the man who made the + marks outside and on the window-sill, opened the window, got into the + room, and stole your tea-pot and spoons. You have now arrived at a vera + causa;—you have assumed a cause which, it is plain, is competent to + produce all the phenomena you have observed. You can explain all these + phenomena only by the hypothesis of a thief. But that is a hypothetical + conclusion, of the justice of which you have no absolute proof at all; it + is only rendered highly probable by a series of inductive and deductive + reasonings. + </p> + <p> + I suppose your first action, assuming that you are a man of ordinary + common sense, and that you have established this hypothesis to your own + satisfaction, will very likely be to go off for the police, and set them + on the track of the burglar, with the view to the recovery of your + property. But just as you are starting with this object, some person comes + in, and on learning what you are about, says, "My good friend, you are + going on a great deal too fast. How do you know that the man who really + made the marks took the spoons? It might have been a monkey that took + them, and the man may have merely looked in afterwards." You would + probably reply, "Well, that is all very well, but you see it is contrary + to all experience of the way tea-pots and spoons are abstracted; so that, + at any rate, your hypothesis is less probable than mine." While you are + talking the thing over in this way, another friend arrives, one of the + good kind of people that I was talking of a little while ago. And he might + say, "Oh, my dear sir, you are certainly going on a great deal too fast. + You are most presumptuous. You admit that all these occurrences took place + when you were fast asleep, at a time when you could not possibly have + known anything about what was taking place. How do you know that the laws + of Nature are not suspended during the night? It may be that there has + been some kind of supernatural interference in this case." In point of + fact, he declares that your hypothesis is one of which you cannot at all + demonstrate the truth, and that you are by no means sure that the laws of + Nature are the same when you are asleep as when you are awake. + </p> + <p> + Well, now, you cannot at the moment answer that kind of reasoning. You + feel that your worthy friend has you somewhat at a disadvantage. You will + feel perfectly convinced in your own mind, however, that you are quite + right, and you say to him, "My good friend, I can only be guided by the + natural probabilities of the case, and if you will be kind enough to stand + aside and permit me to pass, I will go and fetch the police." Well, we + will suppose that your journey is successful, and that by good luck you + meet with a policeman; that eventually the burglar is found with your + property on his person, and the marks correspond to his hand and to his + boots. Probably any jury would consider those facts a very good + experimental verification of your hypothesis, touching the cause of the + abnormal phenomena observed in your parlor, and would act accordingly. + </p> + <p> + Now, in this supposititious case, I have taken phenomena of a very common + kind, in order that you might see what are the different steps in an + ordinary process of reasoning, if you will only take the trouble to + analyse it carefully. All the operations I have described, you will see, + are involved in the mind of any man of sense in leading him to a + conclusion as to the course he should take in order to make good a robbery + and punish the offender. I say that you are led, in that case, to your + conclusion by exactly the same train of reasoning as that which a man of + science pursues when he is endeavouring to discover the origin and laws of + the most occult phenomena. The process is, and always must be, the same; + and precisely the same mode of reasoning was employed by Newton <a + href="#linknote-90" name="linknoteref-90" id="linknoteref-90"><small>90</small></a> + and Laplace <a href="#linknote-91" name="linknoteref-91" + id="linknoteref-91"><small>91</small></a> in their endeavours to discover + and define the causes of the movements of the heavenly bodies, as you, + with your own common sense, would employ to detect a burglar. The only + difference is, that the nature of the inquiry being more abstruse, every + step has to be most carefully watched, so that there may not be a single + crack or flaw in your hypothesis. A flaw or crack in many of the + hypotheses of daily life may be of little or no moment as affecting the + general correctness of the conclusions at which we may arrive; but, in a + scientific inquiry, a fallacy, great or small, is always of importance, + and is sure to be in the long run constantly productive of mischievous if + not fatal results. + </p> + <p> + Do not allow yourselves to be misled by the common notion that an + hypothesis is untrustworthy simply because it is an hypothesis. It is + often urged, in respect to some scientific conclusion, that, after all, it + is only an hypothesis. But what more have we to guide us in nine-tenths of + the most important affairs of daily life than hypotheses, and often very + ill-based ones? So that in science, where the evidence of an hypothesis is + subjected to the most rigid examination, we may rightly pursue the same + course. You may have hypotheses, and hypotheses. A man may say, if he + likes, that the moon is made of green cheese: that is an hypothesis. But + another man, who has devoted a great deal of time and attention to the + subject, and availed himself of the most powerful telescopes and the + results of the observations of others, declares that in his opinion it is + probably composed of materials very similar to those of which our own + earth is made up: and that is also only an hypothesis. But I need not tell + you that there is an enormous difference in the value of the two + hypotheses. That one which is based on sound scientific knowledge is sure + to have a corresponding value; and that which is a mere hasty random guess + is likely to have but little value. Every great step in our progress in + discovering causes has been made in exactly the same way as that which I + have detailed to you. A person observing the occurrence of certain facts + and phenomena asks, naturally enough, what process, what kind of operation + known to occur in Nature applied to the particular case, will unravel and + explain the mystery? Hence you have the scientific hypothesis; and its + value will be proportionate to the care and completeness with which its + basis had been tested and verified. It is in these matters as in the + commonest affairs of practical life: the guess of the fool will be folly, + while the guess of the wise man will contain wisdom. In all cases, you see + that the value of the result depends on the patience and faithfulness with + which the investigator applies to his hypothesis every possible kind of + verification. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE <a href="#linknote-92" name="linknoteref-92" + id="linknoteref-92"><small>92</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + In order to make the title of this discourse generally intelligible, I + have translated the term "Protoplasm," which is the scientific name of the + substance of which I am about to speak, by the words "the physical basis + of life." I suppose that, to many, the idea that there is such a thing as + a physical basis, or matter, of life may be novel—so widely spread + is the conception of life as a something which works through matter, but + is independent of it; and even those who are aware that matter and life + are inseparably connected, may not be prepared for the conclusion plainly + suggested by the phrase, "THE physical basis or matter of life," that + there is some one kind of matter which is common to all living beings, and + that their endless diversities are bound together by a physical, as well + as an ideal, unity. In fact, when first apprehended, such a doctrine as + this appears almost shocking to common sense. + </p> + <p> + What, truly, can seem to be more obviously different from one another, in + faculty, in form, and in substance, than the various kinds of living + beings? What community of faculty can there be between the bright-coloured + lichen, which so nearly resembles a mere mineral incrustation of the bare + rock on which it grows, and the painter, to whom it is instinct with + beauty, or the botanist, whom it feeds with knowledge? + </p> + <p> + Again, think of the microscopic fungus—a mere infinitesimal ovoid + particle, which finds space and duration enough to multiply into countless + millions in the body of a living fly; and then of the wealth of foliage, + the luxuriance of flower and fruit, which lies between this bald sketch of + a plant and the giant pine of California, towering to the dimensions of a + cathedral spire, or the Indian fig, which covers acres with its profound + shadow, and endures while nations and empires come and go around its vast + circumference. Or, turning to the other half of the world of life, picture + to yourselves the great Finner whale,<a href="#linknote-93" + name="linknoteref-93" id="linknoteref-93"><small>93</small></a> hugest of + beasts that live, or have lived, disporting his eighty or ninety feet of + bone, muscle and blubber, with easy roll, among waves in which the + stoutest ship that ever left dockyard would flounder hopelessly; and + contrast him with the invisible animalcules—mere gelatinous specks, + multitudes of which could, in fact, dance upon the point of a needle with + the same ease as the angels of the Schoolmen could, in imagination. With + these images before your minds, you may well ask, what community of form, + or structure, is there between the animalcule and the whale; or between + the fungus and the fig-tree? And, a fortiori,<a href="#linknote-94" + name="linknoteref-94" id="linknoteref-94"><small>94</small></a> between + all four? + </p> + <p> + Finally, if we regard substance, or material composition, what hidden bond + can connect the flower which a girl wears in her hair and the blood which + courses through her youthful veins; or, what is there in common between + the dense and resisting mass of the oak, or the strong fabric of the + tortoise, and those broad disks of glassy jelly which may be seen + pulsating through the waters of a calm sea, but which drain away to mere + films in the hand which raises them out of their element? + </p> + <p> + Such objections as these must, I think, arise in the mind of every one who + ponders, for the first time, upon the conception of a single physical + basis of life underlying all the diversities of vital existence; but I + propose to demonstrate to you that, notwithstanding these apparent + difficulties, a threefold unity—namely, a unity of power or faculty, + a unity of form, and a unity of substantial composition—does pervade + the whole living world. + </p> + <p> + No very abstruse argumentation is needed, in the first place to prove that + the powers, or faculties, of all kinds of living matter, diverse as they + may be in degree, are substantially similar in kind. + </p> + <p> + Goethe has condensed a survey of all powers of mankind into the well-known + epigram:—<a href="#linknote-95" name="linknoteref-95" + id="linknoteref-95"><small>95</small></a> + </p> + <p> + "Warum treibt sich das Volk so und schreit? Es will sich ernahren Kinder + zeugen, und die nahren so gut es vermag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Weiter + bringt es kein Mensch, stell' er sich wie er auch will." + </p> + <p> + In physiological language this means, that all the multifarious and + complicated activities of man are comprehensible under three categories. + Either they are immediately directed towards the maintenance and + development of the body, or they effect transitory changes in the relative + positions of parts of the body, or they tend towards the continuance of + the species. Even those manifestations of intellect, of feeling, and of + will, which we rightly name the higher faculties, are not excluded from + this classification, inasmuch as to every one but the subject of them, + they are known only as transitory changes in the relative positions of + parts of the body. Speech, gesture, and every other form of human action + are, in the long run, resolvable into muscular contraction, and muscular + contraction is but a transitory change in the relative positions of the + parts of a muscle. But the scheme which is large enough to embrace the + activities of the highest form of life, covers all those of the lower + creatures. The lowest plant, or animalcule, feeds, grows, and reproduces + its kind. In addition, all animals manifest those transitory changes of + form which we class under irritability and contractility; and, it is more + than probable, that when the vegetable world is thoroughly explored, we + shall find all plants in possession of the same powers, at one time or + other of their existence. + </p> + <p> + I am not now alluding to such phaenomena, at once rare and conspicuous, as + those exhibited by the leaflets of the sensitive plants, or the stamens of + the barberry, but to much more widely spread, and at the same time, more + subtle and hidden, manifestations of vegetable contractility. You are + doubtless aware that the common nettle owes its stinging property to the + innumerable stiff and needle-like, though exquisitely delicate, hairs + which cover its surface. Each stinging-needle tapers from a broad base to + a slender summit, which, though rounded at the end, is of such microscopic + fineness that it readily penetrates, and breaks off in, the skin. The + whole hair consists of a very delicate outer case of wood, closely applied + to the inner surface of which is a layer of semi-fluid matter, full of + innumerable granules of extreme minuteness. This semi-fluid lining is + protoplasm, which thus constitutes a kind of bag, full of a limpid liquid, + and roughly corresponding in form with the interior of the hair which it + fills. When viewed with a sufficiently high magnifying power, the + protoplasmic layer of the nettle hair is seen to be in a condition of + unceasing activity. Local contractions of the whole thickness of its + substance pass slowly and gradually from point to point, and give rise to + the appearance of progressive waves, just as the bending of successive + stalks of corn by a breeze produces the apparent billows of a cornfield. + </p> + <p> + But, in addition to these movements, and independently of them, the + granules are driven, in relatively rapid streams, through channels in the + protoplasm which seem to have a considerable amount of persistence. Most + commonly, the currents in adjacent parts of the protoplasm take similar + directions; and, thus, there is a general stream up one side of the hair + and down the other. But this does not prevent the existence of partial + currents which take different routes; and sometimes trains of granules may + be seen coursing swiftly in opposite directions within a twenty-thousandth + of an inch of one another; while, occasionally, opposite streams come into + direct collision, and, after a longer or shorter struggle, one + predominates. The cause of these currents seems to lie in contractions of + the protoplasm which bounds the channels in which they flow, but which are + so minute that the best microscopes show only their effects, and not + themselves. + </p> + <p> + The spectacle afforded by the wonderful energies prisoned within the + compass of the microscopic hair of a plant, which we commonly regard as a + merely passive organism, is not easily forgotten by one who has watched + its display, continued hour after hour, without pause or sign of + weakening. The possible complexity of many other organic forms, seemingly + as simple as the protoplasm of the nettle, dawns upon one; and the + comparison of such a protoplasm to a body with an internal circulation, + which has been put forward by an eminent physiologist, loses much of its + startling character. Currents similar to those of the hairs of the nettle + have been observed in a great multitude of very different plants, and + weighty authorities have suggested that they probably occur, in more or + less perfection, in all young vegetable cells. If such be the case, the + wonderful noonday silence of a tropical forest is, after all, due only to + the dulness of our hearing; and could our ears catch the murmur of these + tiny Maelstroms, <a href="#linknote-96" name="linknoteref-96" + id="linknoteref-96"><small>96</small></a> as they whirl in the innumerable + myriads of living cells which constitute each tree, we should be stunned, + as with the roar of a great city. + </p> + <p> + Among the lower plants, it is the rule rather than the exception, that + contractility should be still more openly manifested at some periods of + their existence. The protoplasm of Algae and Fungi becomes, under many + circumstances, partially, or completely, freed from its woody case, and + exhibits movements of its whole mass, or is propelled by the contractility + of one, or more, hair-like prolongations of its body, which are called + vibratile cilia. And, so far as the conditions of the manifestation of the + phaenomena of contractility have yet been studied, they are the same for + the plant as for the animal. Heat and electric shocks influence both, and + in the same way, though it may be in different degrees. It is by no means + my intention to suggest that there is no difference in faculty between the + lowest plant and the highest, or between plants and animals. But the + difference between the powers of the lowest plant, or animal, and those of + the highest, is one of degree, not of kind, and depends, as Milne-Edwards + <a href="#linknote-97" name="linknoteref-97" id="linknoteref-97"><small>97</small></a> + long ago so well pointed out, upon the extent to which the principle of + the division of labour is carried out in the living economy. In the lowest + organism all parts are competent to perform all functions, and one and the + same portion of protoplasm may successfully take on the function of + feeding, moving, or reproducing apparatus. In the highest, on the + contrary, a great number of parts combine to perform each function, each + part doing its allotted share of the work with great accuracy and + efficiency, but being useless for any other purpose. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, notwithstanding all the fundamental resemblances which + exist between the powers of the protoplasm in plants and in animals, they + present a striking difference (to which I shall advert more at length + presently), in the fact that plants can manufacture fresh protoplasm out + of mineral compounds, whereas animals are obliged to procure it ready + made, and hence, in the long run, depend upon plants. Upon what condition + this difference in the powers of the two great divisions of the world of + life depends, nothing is at present known. + </p> + <p> + With such qualifications as arises <a href="#linknote-98" + name="linknoteref-98" id="linknoteref-98"><small>98</small></a> out of the + last-mentioned fact, it may be truly said that the acts of all living + things are fundamentally one. Is any such unity predicable of their forms? + Let us seek in easily verified facts for a reply to this question. If a + drop of blood be drawn by pricking one's finger, and viewed with proper + precautions, and under a sufficiently high microscopic power, there will + be seen, among the innumerable multitude of little, circular, discoidal + bodies, or corpuscles, which float in it and give it its colour, a + comparatively small number of colourless corpuscles, of somewhat larger + size and very irregular shape. If the drop of blood be kept at the + temperature of the body, these colourless corpuscles will be seen to + exhibit a marvellous activity, changing their forms with great rapidity, + drawing in and thrusting out prolongations of their substance, and + creeping about as if they were independent organisms. + </p> + <p> + The substance which is thus active is a mass of protoplasm, and its + activity differs in detail, rather than in principle, from that of the + protoplasm of the nettle. Under sundry circumstances the corpuscle dies + and becomes distended into a round mass, in the midst of which is seen a + smaller spherical body, which existed, but was more or less hidden, in the + living corpuscle, and is called its nucleus. Corpuscles of essentially + similar structure are to be found in the skin, in the lining of the mouth, + and scattered through the whole framework of the body. Nay, more; in the + earliest condition of the human organism, in that state in which it has + but just become distinguishable from the egg in which it arises, it is + nothing but an aggregation of such corpuscles, and every organ of the body + was, once, no more than such an aggregation. + </p> + <p> + Thus a nucleated mass of protoplasm turns out to be what may be termed the + structural unit of the human body. As a matter of fact, the body, in its + earliest state, is a mere multiple of such units; and in its perfect + condition, it is a multiple of such units, variously modified. + </p> + <p> + But does the formula which expresses the essential structural character of + the highest animal cover all the rest, as the statement of its powers and + faculties covered that of all others? Very nearly. Beast and fowl, reptile + and fish, mollusk, worm, and polype, are all composed of structural units + of the same character, namely, masses of protoplasm with a nucleus. There + are sundry very low animals, each of which, structurally, is a mere + colourless blood-corpuscle, leading an independent life. But, at the very + bottom of the animal scale, even this simplicity becomes simplified, and + all the phaenomena of life are manifested by a particle of protoplasm + without a nucleus. Nor are such organisms insignificant by reason of their + want of complexity. It is a fair question whether the protoplasm of those + simplest forms of life, which people an immense extent of the bottom of + the sea, would not outweigh that of all the higher living beings which + inhabit the land put together. And in ancient times, no less than at the + present day, such living beings as these have been the greatest of rock + builders. + </p> + <p> + What has been said of the animal world is no less true of plants. Imbedded + in the protoplasm at the broad, or attached, end of the nettle hair, there + lies a spheroidal nucleus. Careful examination further proves that the + whole substance of the nettle is made up of a repetition of such masses of + nucleated protoplasm, each contained in a wooden case, which is modified + in form, sometimes into a woody fibre, sometimes into a duct or spiral + vessel, sometimes into a pollen grain, or an ovule. Traced back to its + earliest state, the nettle arises as the man does, in a particle of + nucleated protoplasm. And in the lowest plants, as in the lowest animals, + a single mass of such protoplasm may constitute the whole plant, or the + protoplasm may exist without a nucleus. + </p> + <p> + Under these circumstances it may well be asked, how is one mass of + non-nucleated protoplasm to be distinguished from another? why call one + "plant" and the other "animal"? + </p> + <p> + The only reply is that, so far as form is concerned, plants and animals + are not separable, and that, in many cases, it is a mere matter of + convention whether we call a given organism an animal or a plant. There is + a living body called Aethalium septicum, which appears upon decaying + vegetable substances, and, in one of its forms, is common upon the + surfaces of tan-pits. In this condition it is, to all intents and + purposes, a fungus, and formerly was always regarded as such; but the + remarkable investigations of De Bary <a href="#linknote-99" + name="linknoteref-99" id="linknoteref-99"><small>99</small></a> have shown + that, in another condition, the Aethalium is an actively locomotive + creature, and takes in solid matters, upon which, apparently, it feeds, + thus exhibiting the most characteristic feature of animality. Is this a + plant; or is it an animal? Is it both; or is it neither? Some decide in + favour of the last supposition, and establish an intermediate kingdom, a + sort of biological No Man's Land <a href="#linknote-100" + name="linknoteref-100" id="linknoteref-100"><small>100</small></a> for all + these questionable forms. But, as it is admittedly impossible to draw any + distinct boundary line between this no man's land and the vegetable world + on the one hand, or the animal, on the other, it appears to me that this + proceeding merely doubles the difficulty which, before, was single. + </p> + <p> + Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is + the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains + clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick + or sun-dried clod. + </p> + <p> + Thus it becomes clear that all living powers are cognate, and that all + living forms are fundamentally of one character. The researches of the + chemist have revealed a no less striking uniformity of material + composition in living matter. + </p> + <p> + In perfect strictness, it is true that chemical investigation can tell us + little or nothing, directly, of the composition of living matter, inasmuch + as such matter must needs die in the act of analysis,—and upon this + very obvious ground, objections, which I confess seem to me to be somewhat + frivolous, have been raised to the drawing of any conclusions whatever + respecting the composition of actually living matter, from that of the + dead matter of life, which alone is accessible to us. But objectors of + this class do not seem to reflect that it is also, in strictness, true + that we know nothing about the composition of any body whatever, as it is. + The statement that a crystal of calc-spar consists of carbonate of lime, + is quite true, if we only mean that, by appropriate processes, it may be + resolved into carbonic acid and quicklime. If you pass the same carbonic + acid over the very quicklime thus obtained, you will obtain carbonate of + lime again; but it will not be calc-spar, nor anything like it. Can it, + therefore, be said that chemical analysis teaches nothing about the + chemical composition of calc-spar? Such a statement would be absurd; but + it is hardly more so than the talk one occasionally hears about the + uselessness of applying the results of chemical analysis to the living + bodies which have yielded them. + </p> + <p> + One fact, at any rate, is out of reach of such refinements, and this is, + that all the forms of protoplasm which have yet been examined contain the + four elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, in very complex + union, and that they behave similarly towards several reagents. To this + complex combination, the nature of which has never been determined with + exactness, the name of Protein has been applied. And if we use this term + with such caution as may properly arise out of our comparative ignorance + of the things for which it stands, it may be truly said, that all + protoplasm is proteinaceous, or, as the white, or albumen, of an egg is + one of the commonest examples of a nearly pure proteine matter, we may say + that all living matter is more or less albuminoid. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps it would not yet be safe to say that all forms of protoplasm are + affected by the direct action of electric shocks; and yet the number of + cases in which the contraction of protoplasm is shown to be affected by + this agency increases every day. + </p> + <p> + Nor can it be affirmed with perfect confidence, that all forms of + protoplasm are liable to undergo that peculiar coagulation at a + temperature of 40-50 degrees centigrade, which has been called + "heat-stiffening," though Kuhne's <a href="#linknote-101" + name="linknoteref-101" id="linknoteref-101"><small>101</small></a> + beautiful researches have proved this occurrence to take place in so many + and such diverse living beings, that it is hardly rash to expect that the + law holds good for all. + </p> + <p> + Enough has, perhaps, been said to prove the existence of a general + uniformity in the character of the protoplasm, or physical basis, of life, + in whatever group of living beings it may be studied. But it will be + understood that this general uniformity by no means excludes any amount of + special modifications of the fundamental substance. The mineral, carbonate + of lime, assumes an immense diversity of characters, though no one doubts + that, under all these Protean changes, it is one and the same thing. + </p> + <p> + And now, what is the ultimate fate, and what the origin, of the matter of + life? + </p> + <p> + Is it, as some of the older naturalists supposed, diffused throughout the + universe in molecules, which are indestructible and unchangeable in + themselves; but, in endless transmigration, unite in innumerable + permutations, into the diversified forms of life we know? Or, is the + matter of life composed of ordinary matter, differing from it only in the + manner in which its atoms are aggregated? Is it built up of ordinary + matter, and again resolved into ordinary matter when its work is done? + </p> + <p> + Modern science does not hesitate a moment between these alternatives. + Physiology writes over the portals of life— + </p> + <p> + "Debemur morti nos nostraque,"<a href="#linknote-102" + name="linknoteref-102" id="linknoteref-102"><small>102</small></a> + </p> + <p> + with a profounder meaning than the Roman poet attached to that melancholy + line. Under whatever disguise it takes refuge, whether fungus or oak, worm + or man, the living protoplasm not only ultimately dies and is resolved + into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is always dying, and, + strange as the paradox may sound, could not live unless it died. + </p> + <p> + In the wonderful story of the Peau de Chagrin,<a href="#linknote-103" + name="linknoteref-103" id="linknoteref-103"><small>103</small></a> the + hero becomes possessed of a magical wild ass' skin, which yields him the + means of gratifying all his wishes. But its surface represents the + duration of the proprietor's life; and for every satisfied desire the skin + shrinks in proportion to the intensity of fruition, until at length life + and the last handbreadth of the peau de chagrin, disappear with the + gratification of a last wish. + </p> + <p> + Balzac's <a href="#linknote-104" name="linknoteref-104" + id="linknoteref-104"><small>104</small></a> studies had led him over a + wide range of thought and speculation, and his shadowing forth of + physiological truth in this strange story may have been intentional. At + any rate, the matter of life is a veritable peau de chagrin, and for every + vital act it is somewhat the smaller. All work implies waste, and the work + of life results, directly or indirectly, in the waste of protoplasm. + </p> + <p> + Every word uttered by a speaker costs him some physical loss; and, in the + strictest sense, he burns that others may have light—so much + eloquence, so much of his body resolved into carbonic acid, water, and + urea. It is clear that this process of expenditure cannot go on for ever. + But, happily, the protoplasmic peau de chagrin differs from Balzac's in + its capacity of being repaired, and brought back to its full size, after + every exertion. + </p> + <p> + For example, this present lecture, whatever its intellectual worth to you, + has a certain physical value to me, which is, conceivably, expressible by + the number of grains of protoplasm and other bodily substance wasted in + maintaining my vital processes during its delivery. My peau de chagrin + will be distinctly smaller at the end of the discourse than it was at the + beginning. By and by, I shall probably have recourse to the substance + commonly called mutton, for the purpose of stretching it back to its + original size. Now this mutton was once the living protoplasm, more or + less modified, of another animal—a sheep. As I shall eat it, it is + the same matter altered, not only by death, but by exposure to sundry + artificial operations in the process of cooking. + </p> + <p> + But these changes, whatever be their extent, have not rendered it + incompetent to resume its old functions as matter of life. A singular + inward laboratory, which I possess, will dissolve a certain portion of the + modified protoplasm; the solution so formed will pass into my veins; and + the subtle influences to which it will then be subjected will convert the + dead protoplasm into living protoplasm, and transubstantiate sheep into + man. + </p> + <p> + Nor is this all. If digestion were a thing to be trifled with, I might sup + upon lobster, and the matter of life of the crustacean would undergo the + same wonderful metamorphosis into humanity. And were I to return to my own + place by sea, and undergo shipwreck, the crustacean might, and probably + would, return the compliment, and demonstrate our common nature by turning + my protoplasm into living lobster. Or, if nothing better were to be had, I + might supply my wants with mere bread, and I should find the protoplasm of + the wheat-plant to be convertible into man, with no more trouble than that + of the sheep, and with far less, I fancy, than that of the lobster. + </p> + <p> + Hence it appears to be a matter of no great moment what animal, or what + plant, I lay under contribution for protoplasm, and the fact speaks + volumes for the general identity of that substance in all living beings. I + share this catholicity of assimilation with other animals, all of which, + so far as we know, could thrive equally well on the protoplasm of any of + their fellows, or of any plant; but here the assimilative powers of the + animal world cease. A solution of smelling-salts in water, with an + infinitesimal proportion of some other saline matters, contains all the + elementary bodies which enter into the composition of protoplasm; but, as + I need hardly say, a hogshead of that fluid would not keep a hungry man + from starving, nor would it save any animal whatever from a like fate. An + animal cannot make protoplasm, but must take it ready-made from some other + animal, or some plant—the animal's highest feat of constructive + chemistry being to convert dead protoplasm into that living matter of life + which is appropriate to itself. + </p> + <p> + Therefore, in seeking for the origin of protoplasm, we must eventually + turn to the vegetable world. A fluid containing carbonic acid, water, and + nitrogenous salts, which offers such a Barmecide feast <a + href="#linknote-105" name="linknoteref-105" id="linknoteref-105"><small>105</small></a> + to the animal, is a table richly spread to multitudes of plants; and, with + a due supply of only such materials, many a plant will not only maintain + itself in vigour, but grow and multiply until it has increased a + million-fold, or a million million-fold, the quantity of protoplasm which + it originally possessed; in this way building up the matter of life, to an + indefinite extent, from the common matter of the universe. + </p> + <p> + Thus, the animal can only raise the complex substance of dead protoplasm + to the higher power, as one may say, of living protoplasm; while the plant + can raise the less complex substances—carbonic acid, water, and + nitrogenous salts—to the same stage of living protoplasm, if not to + the same level. But the plant also has its limitations. Some of the fungi, + for example, appear to need higher compounds to start with; and no known + plant can live upon the uncompounded elements of protoplasm. A plant + supplied with pure carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, phosphorus, + sulphur, and the like, would as infallibly die as the animal in his bath + of smelling-salts, though it would be surrounded by all the constituents + of protoplasm. Nor, indeed, need the process of simplification of + vegetable food be carried so far as this, in order to arrive at the limit + of the plant's thaumaturgy. Let water, carbonic acid, and all the other + needful constituents be supplied except nitrogenous salts, and an ordinary + plant will still be unable to manufacture protoplasm. + </p> + <p> + Thus the matter of life, so far as we know it (and we have no right to + speculate on any other), breaks up, in consequence of that continual death + which is the condition of its manifesting vitality, into carbonic acid, + water, and nitrogenous compounds, which certainly possess no properties + but those of ordinary matter. And out of these same forms of ordinary + matter, and from none which are simpler, the vegetable world builds up all + the protoplasm which keeps the animal world a-going. Plants are the + accumulators of the power which animals distribute and disperse. + </p> + <p> + But it will be observed, that the existence of the matter of life depends + on the pre-existence of certain compounds; namely, carbonic acid, water, + and certain nitrogenous bodies. Withdraw any one of these three from the + world, and all vital phaenomena come to an end. They are as necessary to + the protoplasm of the plant, as the protoplasm of the plant is to that of + the animal. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are all lifeless + bodies. Of these, carbon and oxygen unite in certain proportions and under + certain conditions, to give rise to carbonic acid; hydrogen and oxygen + produce water; nitrogen and other elements give rise to nitrogenous salts. + These new compounds, like the elementary bodies of which they are + composed, are lifeless. But when they are brought together, under certain + conditions, they give rise to the still more complex body, protoplasm, and + this protoplasm exhibits the phaenomena of life. + </p> + <p> + I see no break in this series of steps in molecular complication, and I am + unable to understand why the language which is applicable to any one term + of the series may not be used to any of the others. We think fit to call + different kinds of matter carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, and to + speak of the various powers and activities of these substances as the + properties of the matter of which they are composed. + </p> + <p> + When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in a certain proportion, and an + electric spark is passed through them, they disappear, and a quantity of + water, equal in weight to the sum of their weights, appears in their + place. There is not the slightest parity between the passive and active + powers of the water and those of the oxygen and hydrogen which have given + rise to it. At 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and far below that temperature, + oxygen and hydrogen are elastic gaseous bodies, whose particles tend to + rush away from one another with great force. Water, at the same + temperature, is a strong though brittle solid whose particles tend to + cohere into definite geometrical shapes, and sometimes build up frosty + imitations of the most complex forms of vegetable foliage. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless we call these, and many other strange phaenomena, the + properties of the water, and we do not hesitate to believe that, in some + way or another, they result from the properties of the component elements + of the water. We do not assume that a something called "aquosity" entered + into and took possession of the oxidated hydrogen as soon as it was + formed, and then guided the aqueous particles to their places in the + facets of the crystal, or amongst the leaflets of the hoar-frost. On the + contrary, we live in the hope and in the faith that, by the advance of + molecular physics, we shall by and by be able to see our way as clearly + from the constituents of water to the properties of water, as we are now + able to deduce the operations of a watch from the form of its parts and + the manner in which they are put together. + </p> + <p> + Is the case in any way changed when carbonic acid, water, and nitrogenous + salts disappear, and in their place, under the influence of pre-existing + living protoplasm, an equivalent weight of the matter of life makes its + appearance? + </p> + <p> + It is true that there is no sort of parity between the properties of the + components and the properties of the resultant, but neither was there in + the case of the water. It is also true that what I have spoken of as the + influence of pre-existing living matter is something quite unintelligible; + but does anybody quite comprehend the modus operandi <a + href="#linknote-106" name="linknoteref-106" id="linknoteref-106"><small>106</small></a> + of an electric spark, which traverses a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen? + </p> + <p> + What justification is there, then, for the assumption of the existence in + the living matter of a something which has no representative, or + correlative, in the not living matter which gave rise to it? What better + philosophical status has "vitality" than "aquosity"? And why should + "vitality" hope for a better fate than the other "itys" which have + disappeared since Martinus Scriblerus <a href="#linknote-107" + name="linknoteref-107" id="linknoteref-107"><small>107</small></a> + accounted for the operation of the meat-jack <a href="#linknote-108" + name="linknoteref-108" id="linknoteref-108"><small>108</small></a> by its + inherent "meat-roasting quality," and scorned the "materialism" of those + who explained the turning of the spit by a certain mechanism worked by the + draught of the chimney. + </p> + <p> + If scientific language is to possess a definite and constant signification + whenever it is employed, it seems to me that we are logically bound to + apply to the protoplasm, or physical basis of life, the same conceptions + as those which are held to be legitimate elsewhere. If the phaenomena + exhibited by water are its properties, so are those presented by + protoplasm, living or dead, its properties. + </p> + <p> + If the properties of water may be properly said to result from the nature + and disposition of its component molecules, I can find no intelligible + ground for refusing to say that the properties of protoplasm result from + the nature and disposition of its molecules. + </p> + <p> + But I bid you beware that, in accepting these conclusions, you are placing + your feet on the first rung of a ladder which, in most people's + estimation, is the reverse of Jacob's, and leads to the antipodes of + heaven. It may seem a small thing to admit that the dull vital actions of + a fungus, or a foraminifer, are the properties of their protoplasm, and + are the direct results of the nature of the matter of which they are + composed. But if, as I have endeavoured to prove to you, their protoplasm + is essentially identical with, and most readily converted into, that of + any animal, I can discover no logical halting-place between the admission + that such is the case, and the further concession that all vital action + may, with equal propriety, be said to be the result of the molecular + forces of the protoplasm which displays it. And if so, it must be true, in + the same sense and to the same extent, that the thoughts to which I am now + giving utterance, and your thoughts regarding them, are the expression of + molecular changes in that matter of life which is the source of our other + vital phaenomena.<a href="#linknote-109" name="linknoteref-109" + id="linknoteref-109"><small>109</small></a> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS <a href="#linknote-110" name="linknoteref-110" + id="linknoteref-110"><small>110</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + The marine productions which are commonly known by the names of "Corals" + and "Corallines," were thought by the ancients to be sea-weeds, which had + the singular property of becoming hard and solid, when they were fished up + from their native depths and came into contact with the air. + </p> + <p> + "Sic et curalium, quo primum contigit auras Tempore durescit: mollis fuit + herba sub undis,"<a href="#linknote-111" name="linknoteref-111" + id="linknoteref-111"><small>111</small></a> + </p> + <p> + says Ovid (Metam. xv); and it was not until the seventeenth century that + Boccone <a href="#linknote-112" name="linknoteref-112" id="linknoteref-112"><small>112</small></a> + was emboldened, by personal experience of the facts, to declare that the + holders of this belief were no better than "idiots," who had been misled + by the softness of the outer coat of the living red coral to imagine that + it was soft all through. + </p> + <p> + Messer Boccone's strong epithet is probably undeserved, as the notion he + controverts, in all likelihood, arose merely from the misinterpretation of + the strictly true statement which any coral fisherman would make to a + curious inquirer; namely, that the outside coat of the red coral is quite + soft when it is taken out of the sea. At any rate, he did good service by + eliminating this much error from the current notions about coral. But the + belief that corals are plants remained, not only in the popular, but in + the scientific mind; and it received what appeared to be a striking + confirmation from the researches of Marsigli <a href="#linknote-113" + name="linknoteref-113" id="linknoteref-113"><small>113</small></a> in + 1706. For this naturalist, having the opportunity of observing + freshly-taken red coral, saw that its branches were beset with what looked + like delicate and beautiful flowers each having eight petals. It was true + that these "flowers" could protrude and retract themselves, but their + motions were hardly more extensive, or more varied, than those of the + leaves of the sensitive plant; and therefore they could not be held to + militate against the conclusion so strongly suggested by their form and + their grouping upon the branches of a tree-like structure. + </p> + <p> + Twenty years later, a pupil of Marsigli, the young Marseilles physician, + Peyssonel, conceived the desire to study these singular sea-plants, and + was sent by the French Government on a mission to the Mediterranean for + that purpose. The pupil undertook the investigation full of confidence in + the ideas of his master, but being able to see and think for himself, he + soon discovered that those ideas by no means altogether corresponded with + reality. In an essay entitled "Traite du Corail," which was communicated + to the French Academy of Science, but which has never been published, + Peyssonel writes:— + </p> + <p> + "Je fis fleurir le corail dans des vases pleins d'eau de mer, et + j'observai que ce que nous croyons etre la fleur de cette pretendue plante + n'etait au vrai, qu'un insecte semblable a une petite Ortie ou Poulpe. + J'avais le plaisir de voir remuer les pattes, ou pieds, de cette Ortie, et + ayant mis le vase plein d'eau ou le corail etait a une douce chaleur + aupres du feu, tous les petits insectes s'epanouirent.—L'Ortie + sortie etend les pieds, et forme ce que M. de Marsigli et moi avions pris + pour les petales de la fleur. Le calice de cette pretendue fleur est le + corps meme de l'animal avance et sorti hors de la cellule."*<a + href="#linknote-114" name="linknoteref-114" id="linknoteref-114"><small>114</small></a> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * This extract from Peyssonel's manuscript is given by M. + Lacaze Duthiers in his valuable Histoire Naturelle du Corail + (1866). +</pre> + <p> + The comparison of the flowers of the coral to a "petite ortie," or "little + nettle," is perfectly just, but needs explanation. "Ortie de mer," or + "sea-nettle," is, in fact, the French appellation for our "sea-anemone," a + creature with which everybody, since the great aquarium mania, must have + become familiar, even to the limits of boredom. In 1710, the great + naturalist, Reaumur,<a href="#linknote-115" name="linknoteref-115" + id="linknoteref-115"><small>115</small></a> had written a memoir for the + express purpose of demonstrating that these "orties" are animals; and with + this important paper Peyssonel must necessarily have been familiar. + Therefore, when he declared the "flowers" of the red coral to be little + "orties," it was the same thing as saying that they were animals of the + same general nature as sea-anemones. But to Peyssonel's contemporaries + this was an extremely startling announcement. It was hard to imagine the + existence of such a thing as an association of animals into a structure + with stem and branches altogether like a plant, and fixed to the soil as a + plant is fixed; and the naturalists of that day preferred not to imagine + it. Even Reaumur could not bring himself to accept the notion, and France + being blessed with Academicians, whose great function (as the late Bishop + Wilson <a href="#linknote-116" name="linknoteref-116" id="linknoteref-116"><small>116</small></a> + and an eminent modern writer <a href="#linknote-117" name="linknoteref-117" + id="linknoteref-117"><small>117</small></a> have so well shown) is to + cause sweetness and light to prevail, and to prevent such unmannerly + fellows as Peyssonel from blurting out unedifying truths, they suppressed + him; and, as aforesaid, his great work remained in manuscript, and may at + this day be consulted by the curious in that state, in the Bibliotheque du + Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Peyssonel, who evidently was a person of + savage and untameable disposition, so far from appreciating the kindness + of the Academicians in giving him time to reflect upon the + unreasonableness, not to say rudeness, of making public statements in + opposition to the views of some of the most distinguished of their body, + seems bitterly to have resented the treatment he met with. For he sent all + further communications to the Royal Society of London, which never had, + and it is to be hoped never will have, anything of an academic + constitution; and finally he took himself off to Guadaloupe, and became + lost to science altogether. + </p> + <p> + Fifteen or sixteen years after the date of Peyssonel's suppressed paper, + the Abbe Trembley <a href="#linknote-118" name="linknoteref-118" + id="linknoteref-118"><small>118</small></a> published his wonderful + researches upon the fresh-water Hydra. Bernard de Jussieu <a + href="#linknote-119" name="linknoteref-119" id="linknoteref-119"><small>119</small></a> + and Guettard <a href="#linknote-120" name="linknoteref-120" + id="linknoteref-120"><small>120</small></a> followed them up by like + inquiries upon the marine sea-anemones and corallines; Reaumur, convinced + against his will of the entire justice of Peyssonel's views, adopted them, + and made him a half-and-half apology in the preface to the next published + volume of the "Memoires pour servir l'Histoire des Insectes;" and, from + this time forth, Peyssonel's doctrine that corals are the work of animal + organisms has been part of the body of established scientific truth. + </p> + <p> + Peyssonel, in the extract from his memoir already cited, compares the + flower-like animal of the coral to a "poulpe," which is the French form of + the name "polypus,"—"the many-footed,"—which the ancient + naturalists gave to the soft-bodied cuttlefishes, which, like the coral + animal, have eight arms, or tentacles, disposed around a central mouth. + Reaumur, admitting the analogy indicated by Peyssonel, gave the name of + polypes, not only to the sea-anemone, the coral animal, and the + fresh-water Hydra, but to what are now known as the Polyzoa, and he termed + the skeleton which they fabricate a "polypier," or "polypidom." + </p> + <p> + The progress of discovery, since Reaumur's time, has made us very + completely acquainted with the structure and habits of all these polypes. + We know that, among the sea-anemones and coral-forming animals, each + poylpe has a mouth leading to a stomach, which is open at its inner end, + and thus communicates freely with the general cavity of the body; that the + tentacles placed round the mouth are hollow, and that they perform the + part of arms in seizing and capturing prey. It is known that many of these + creatures are capable of being multiplied by artificial division, the + divided halves growing, after a time, into complete and separate animals; + and that many are able to perform a very similar process naturally, in + such a manner that one polype may, by repeated incomplete divisions, give + rise to a sort of sheet, or turf, formed by innumerable connected, and yet + independent, descendants. Or, what is still more common, a polype may + throw out buds, which are converted into polypes, or branches bearing + polypes, until a tree-like mass, sometimes of very considerable size, is + formed. + </p> + <p> + This is what happens in the case of the red coral of commerce. A minute + polype, fixed to the rocky bottom of the deep sea, grows up into a + branched trunk. The end of every branch and twig is terminated by a + polype; and all the polypes are connected together by a fleshy substance, + traversed by innumerable canals which place each polype in communication + with every other, and carry nourishment to the substance of the supporting + stem. It is a sort of natural cooperative store, every polype helping the + whole, at the same time as it helps itself. The interior of the stem, like + that of the branches, is solidified by the deposition of carbonate of lime + in its tissue, somewhat in the same fashion as our own bones are formed of + animal matter impregnated with lime salts; and it is this dense skeleton + (usually turned red by a peculiar colouring matter) cleared of the soft + animal investment, as the hard wood of a tree might be stripped of its + bark, which is the red coral. + </p> + <p> + In the case of the red coral, the hard skeleton belongs to the interior of + the stem and branches only; but in the commoner white corals, each polype + has a complete skeleton of its own. These polypes are sometimes solitary, + in which case the whole skeleton is represented by a single cup, with + partitions radiating from its centre to its circumference. When the + polypes formed by budding or division remain associated, the polypidom is + sometimes made up of nothing but an aggregation of these cups, while at + other times the cups are at once separated and held together, by an + intermediate substance, which represents the branches of the red coral. + The red coral polype again is a comparatively rare animal, inhabiting a + limited area, the skeleton of which has but a very insignificant mass; + while the white corals are very common, occur in almost all seas, and form + skeletons which are sometimes extremely massive. + </p> + <p> + With a very few exceptions, both the red and the white coral polypes are, + in their adult state, firmly adherent to the sea-bottom; nor do their buds + naturally become detached and locomotive. But, in addition to budding and + division, these creatures possess the more ordinary methods of + multiplication; and, at particular seasons, they give rise to numerous + eggs of minute size. Within these eggs the young are formed, and they + leave the egg in a condition which has no sort of resemblance to the + perfect animal. It is, in fact, a minute oval body, many hundred times + smaller than the full grown creature, and it swims about with great + activity by the help of multitudes of little hair-like filaments, called + cilia, with which its body is covered. These cilia all lash the water in + one direction, and so drive the little body along as if it were propelled + by thousands of extremely minute paddles. After enjoying its freedom for a + longer or shorter time, and being carried either by the force of its own + cilia, or by currents which bear it along, the embryo coral settles down + to the bottom, loses its cilia, and becomes fixed to the rock, gradually + assuming the polype form and growing up to the size of its parent. As the + infant polypes of the coral may retain this free and active condition for + many hours, or even days, and as a tidal or other current in the sea may + easily flow at the speed of two or even more miles in an hour, it is clear + that the embryo must often be transported to very considerable distances + from the parent. And it is easily understood how a single polype, which + may give rise to hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of embryos, may, by this + process of partly active and partly passive migration, cover an immense + surface with its offspring. + </p> + <p> + The masses of coral which may be formed by the assemblages of polypes + which spring by budding, or by dividing, from a single polype, + occasionally attain very considerable dimensions. Such skeletons are + sometimes great plates, many feet long and several feet in thickness; or + they may form huge half globes, like the brainstone corals, or may reach + the magnitude of stout shrubs or even small trees. There is reason to + believe that such masses as these take a long time to form, and hence that + the age a polype tree, or polype turf, may attain, may be considerable. + But, sooner or later, the coral polypes, like all other things, die; the + soft flesh decays, while the skeleton is left as a stony mass at the + bottom of the sea, where it retains its integrity for a longer or a + shorter time, according as its position affords more or less protection + from the wear and tear of the waves. + </p> + <p> + The polypes which give rise to the white coral are found, as has been + said, in the seas of all parts of the world; but in the temperate and cold + oceans they are scattered and comparatively small in size, so that the + skeletons of those which die do not accumulate in any considerable + quantity. But it is otherwise in the greater part of the ocean which lies + in the warmer parts of the world, comprised within a distance of about + eighteen hundred miles on each side of the equator. Within the zone thus + bounded, by far the greater part of the ocean is inhabited by coral + polypes, which not only form very strong and large skeletons, but + associate together into great masses, like the thickets and the meadow + turf, or, better still, the accumulations of peat, to which plants give + rise on dry land. These masses of stony matter, heaped up beneath the + waters of the ocean, become as dangerous to mariners as so much ordinary + rock, and to these, as to the common rock ridges, the seaman gives the + name of "reefs." + </p> + <p> + Such coral reefs cover many thousand square miles in the Pacific and in + the Indian Oceans. There is one reef, or rather great series of reefs, + called the Barrier Reef, which stretches, almost continuously, for more + than eleven hundred miles off the east coast of Australia. Multitudes of + the islands in the Pacific are either reefs themselves, or are surrounded + by reefs. The Red Sea is in many parts almost a maze of such reefs, and + they abound no less in the West Indies, along the coast of Florida, and + even as far north as the Bahama Islands. But it is a very remarkable + circumstance that, within the area of what we may call the "coral zone," + there are no coral reefs upon the west coast of America, nor upon the west + coast of Africa; and it is a general fact that the reefs are interrupted, + or absent, opposite the mouths of great rivers. The causes of this + apparent caprice in the distribution of coral reefs are not far to seek. + The polypes which fabricate them require for their vigorous growth a + temperature which must not fall below 68 degrees Fahrenheit all the year + round, and this temperature is only to be found within the distance on + each side of the equator which has been mentioned, or thereabouts. But + even within the coral zone this degree of warmth is not everywhere to be + had. On the west coast of America, and on the corresponding coast of + Africa, the currents of cold water from the icy regions which surround the + South Pole set northward, and it appears to be due to their cooling + influence that the sea in these regions is free from the reef builders. + Again, the coral polypes cannot live in water which is rendered brackish + by floods from the land, or which is perturbed by mud from the same + source, and hence it is that they cease to exist opposite the mouths of + rivers, which damage them in both these ways. + </p> + <p> + Such is the general distribution of the reef-building corals, but there + are some very interesting and singular circumstances to be observed in the + conformation of the reefs, when we consider them individually. The reefs, + in fact, are of three different kinds; some of them stretch out from the + shore, almost like a prolongation of the beach, covered only by shallow + water, and in the case of an island, surrounding it like a fringe of no + considerable breadth. These are termed "fringing reefs." Others are + separated by a channel which may attain a width of many miles, and a depth + of twenty or thirty fathoms or more, from the nearest land; and when this + land is an island, the reef surrounds it like a low wall, and the sea + between the reef and the land is, as it were, a moat inside this wall. + Such reefs as these are called "encircling" when they surround an island; + and "barrier" reefs, when they stretch parallel with the coast of a + continent. In both these cases there is ordinary dry land inside the reef, + and separated from it only by a narrower or a wider, a shallower or a + deeper, space of sea, which is called a "lagoon," or "inner passage." But + there is a third kind of reef, of very common occurrence in the Pacific + and Indian Oceans, which goes by the name of "atoll." This is, to all + intents and purposes, an encircling reef, without anything to encircle; + or, in other words, without an island in the middle of its lagoon. The + atoll has exactly the appearance of a vast, irregularly oval, or circular, + breakwater, enclosing smooth water in its midst. The depth of the water in + the lagoon rarely exceeds twenty or thirty fathoms, but, outside the reef, + it deepens with great rapidity to two hundred or three hundred fathoms. + The depth immediately outside the barrier, or encircling, reefs, may also + be very considerable; but, at the outer edge of a fringing reef, it does + not amount usually to more than twenty or twenty-five fathoms; in other + words, from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty feet. + </p> + <p> + Thus, if the water of the ocean should be suddenly drained away, we should + see the atolls rising from the sea-bed like vast truncated cones, and + resembling so many volcanic craters, except that their sides would be + steeper than those of an ordinary volcano. In the case of the encircling + reefs, the cone, with the enclosed island, would look like Vesuvius with + Monte Nuovo within the old crater of Somma;<a href="#linknote-121" + name="linknoteref-121" id="linknoteref-121"><small>121</small></a> while, + finally, the island with a fringing reef would have the appearance of an + ordinary hill, or mountain, girded by a vast parapet, within which would + lie a shallow moat. And the dry bed of the Pacific might afford grounds + for an inhabitant of the moon to speculate upon the extraordinary + subterranean activity to which these vast and numerous "craters" bore + witness! + </p> + <p> + When the structure of a fringing reef is investigated, the bottom of the + lagoon is found to be covered with fine whitish mud, which results from + the breaking up of the dead corals. Upon this muddy floor there lie, here + and there, growing corals, or occasionally great blocks of dead coral, + which have been torn by storms from the outer edge of the reef, and washed + into the lagoon. Shellfish and worms of various kinds abound; and fish, + some of which prey upon the coral, sport in the deeper pools. But the + corals which are to be seen growing in the shallow waters of the lagoon + are of a different kind from those which abound on the outer edge of the + reef, and of which the reef is built up. Close to the seaward edge of the + reef, over which, even in calm weather, a surf almost always breaks, the + coral rock is encrusted with a thick coat of a singular vegetable + organism, which contains a great deal of lime—the so-called + Nullipora. Beyond this, in the part of the edge of the reef which is + always covered by the breaking waves, the living, true, reef-polypes make + their appearance; and, in different forms, coat the steep seaward face of + the reef to a depth of one hundred or even one hundred and fifty feet. + Beyond this depth the sounding-lead rests, not upon the wall-like face of + the reef, but on the ordinary shelving sea-bottom. And the distance to + which a fringing reef extends from the land corresponds with that at which + the sea has a depth of twenty or five-and-twenty fathoms. + </p> + <p> + If, as we have supposed, the sea could be suddenly withdrawn from around + an island provided with a fringing reef, such as the Mauritius,<a + href="#linknote-122" name="linknoteref-122" id="linknoteref-122"><small>122</small></a> + the reef would present the aspect of a terrace, its seaward face, one + hundred feet or more high, blooming with the animal flowers of the coral, + while its surface would be hollowed out into a shallow and irregular + moat-like excavation. + </p> + <p> + The coral mud, which occupies the bottom of the lagoon, and with which all + the interstices of the coral skeletons which accumulate to form the reef + are filled up, does not proceed from the washing action of the waves + alone; innumerable fishes, and other creatures which prey upon the coral, + add a very important contribution of finely-triturated calcareous matter; + and the corals and mud becoming incorporated together, gradually harden + and give rise to a sort of limestone rock, which may vary a good deal in + texture. Sometimes it remains friable and chalky, but, more often, the + infiltration of water, charged with carbonic acid, dissolves some of the + calcareous matter, and deposits it elsewhere in the interstices of the + nascent rock, thus glueing and cementing the particles together into a + hard mass; or it may even dissolve the carbonate of lime more extensively, + and re-deposit it in a crystalline form. On the beach of the lagoon, where + the coral sand is washed into layers by the action of the waves, its + grains become thus fused together into strata of a limestone, so hard that + they ring when struck with a hammer, and inclined at a gentle angle, + corresponding with that of the surface of the beach. The hard parts of the + many animals which live upon the reef become imbedded in this coral + limestone, so that a block may be full of shells of bivalves and + univalves, or of sea urchins; and even sometimes encloses the eggs of + turtles in a state of petrification. The active and vigorous growth of the + reef goes on only at the seaward margins, where the polypes are exposed to + the wash of the surf, and are thereby provided with an abundant supply of + air and of food. The interior portion of the reef may be regarded as + almost wholly an accumulation of dead skeletons. Where a river comes down + from the land there is a break in the reef, for the reasons which have + been already mentioned. + </p> + <p> + The origin and mode of formation of a fringing reef, such as that just + described, are plain enough. The embryos of the coral polypes have fixed + themselves upon the submerged shore of the island, as far out as they + could live, namely, to a depth of twenty or twenty-five fathoms. One + generation has succeeded another, building itself up upon the dead + skeletons of its predecessor. The mass has been consolidated by the + infiltration of coral mud, and hardened by partial solution and + redeposition, until a great rampart of coral rock one hundred or one + hundred and fifty feet high on its seaward face has been formed all round + the island, with only such gaps as result from the outflow of rivers, in + the place of sally-ports. + </p> + <p> + The structure of the rocky accumulation in the encircling reefs and in the + atolls is essentially the same as in the fringing reef. But, in addition + to the differences of depth inside and out, they present some other + peculiarities. These reefs, and especially the atolls, are usually + interrupted at one part of their circumference, and this part is always + situated on the leeward side of the reef, or that which is the more + sheltered side. Now, as all these reefs are situated within the region in + which the tradewinds prevail, it follows that, on the north side of the + equator, where the trade-wind is a northeasterly wind, the opening of the + reef is on the southwest side: while in the southern hemisphere, where the + trade-winds blow from the southeast, the opening lies to the northwest. + The curious practical result follows from this structure, that the lagoons + to these reefs really form admirable harbours, if a ship can only get + inside them. But the main difference between the encircling reefs and the + atolls, on the one hand, and the fringing reefs on the other, lies in the + fact of the much greater depth of water on the seaward faces of the + former. As a consequence of this fact, the whole of this face is not, as + it is in the case of the fringing reef, covered with living coral polypes. + For, as we have seen, these polypes cannot live at a greater depth than + about twenty-five fathoms; and actual observation has shown that while, + down to this depth, the sounding-lead will bring up branches of live coral + from the outer wall of such a reef, at a greater depth it fetches to the + surface nothing but dead coral and coral sand. We must, therefore, picture + to ourselves an atoll, or an encircling reef, as fringed for one hundred + feet, or more, from its summit, with coral polypes busily engaged in + fabricating coral; while, below this comparatively narrow belt, its + surface is a bare and smooth expanse of coral sand, supported upon and + within a core of coral limestone. Thus, if the bed of the Pacific were + suddenly laid bare, as was just now supposed, the appearance of the + reef-mountains would be exactly the reverse of that presented by many high + mountains on land. For these are white with snow at the top, while their + bases are clothed with an abundant and gaudily-coloured vegetation. But + the coral cones would look grey and barren below, while their summits + would be gay with a richly-coloured parterre of flowerlike coral polypes. + </p> + <p> + The practical difficulties of sounding upon, and of bringing up portions + of, the seaward face of an atoll or of an encircling reef, are so great, + in consequence of the constant and dangerous swell which sets towards it, + that no exact information concerning the depth to which the reefs are + composed of coral has yet been obtained. There is no reason to doubt, + however, that the reef-cone has the same structure from its summit to its + base, and that its sea-wall is throughout mainly composed of dead coral. + </p> + <p> + And now arises a serious difficulty. If the coral polypes cannot live at a + greater depth than one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet, how can they + have built up the base of the reef-cone, which may be two thousand feet, + or more, below the surface of the sea? + </p> + <p> + In order to get over this objection, it was at one time supposed that the + reef-building polypes had settled upon the summits of a chain of submarine + mountains. But what is there in physical geography to justify the + assumption of the existence of a chain of mountains stretching for one + thousand miles or more, and so nearly of the same height, that none should + rise above the level of the sea, nor fall one hundred and fifty feet below + that level? + </p> + <p> + How, again, on this hypothesis, are atolls to be accounted for, unless, as + some have done, we take refuge in the wild supposition that every atoll + corresponds with the crater of a submarine volcano? And what explanation + does it afford of the fact that, in some parts of the ocean, only atolls + and encircling reefs occur, while others present none but fringing reefs? + </p> + <p> + These and other puzzling facts remained insoluble until the publication, + in the year 1840, of Mr. Darwin's famous work on coral reefs;<a + href="#linknote-123" name="linknoteref-123" id="linknoteref-123"><small>123</small></a> + in which a key was given to all the difficult problems connected with the + subject, and every difficulty was shown to be capable of solution by + deductive reasoning from a happy combination of certain well-established + geological and biological truths. Mr. Darwin, in fact, showed that, so + long as the level of the sea remains unaltered in any area in which coral + reefs are being formed, or if the level of the sea relatively to that of + the land is falling, the only reefs which can be formed are fringing + reefs. While if, on the contrary, the level of the sea is rising + relatively to that of the land, at a rate not faster than that at which + the upward growth of the coral can keep pace with it, the reef will + gradually pass from the condition of a fringing, into that of an + encircling or barrier reef. And, finally, that if the relative level of + the sea rise so much that the encircled land is completely submerged, the + reef must necessarily pass into the condition of an atoll. + </p> + <p> + For, suppose the relative level of the sea to remain stationary, after a + fringing reef has reached that distance from the land at which the depth + of water amounts to one hundred and fifty feet. Then the reef cannot + extend seaward by the migration of coral germs, because these coral germs + would find the bottom of the sea to be too deep for them to live in. And + the only manner in which the reef could extend outwards, would be by the + gradual accumulation, at the foot of its seaward face, of a talus of coral + fragments torn off by the violence of the waves, which talus might, in + course of time, become high enough to bring its upper surface within the + limits of coral growth, and in that manner provide a sort of factitious + sea-bottom upon which the coral embryos might perch. If, on the other + hand, the level of the sea were slowly and gradually lowered, it is clear + that the parts of its bottom originally beyond the limit of coral growth + would gradually be brought within the required distance of the surface, + and thus the reef might be indefinitely extended. But this process would + give rise neither to an encircling reef nor to an atoll, but to a broad + belt of upheaved coral rock, increasing the dimensions of the dry land, + and continuous seawards with the fresh fringing reef. + </p> + <p> + Suppose, however, that the sea-level rose instead of falling, at the same + slow and gradual rate at which we know it to be rising in some parts of + the world,—not more, in fact, than a few inches, or, at most, a foot + or two, in a hundred years. Then, while the reef would be unable to extend + itself seaward, the sea-bottom outside it being gradually more and more + removed from the depth at which the life of the coral polypes is possible, + it would be able to grow upwards as fast as the sea rose. But the growth + would take place almost exclusively around the circumference of the reef, + this being the only region in which the coral polypes would find the + conditions favourable for their existence. The bottom of the lagoon would + be raised, in the main, only by the coral debris and coral mud, formed in + the manner already described; consequently, the margins of the reef would + rise faster than the bottom, or, in other words, the lagoon would + constantly become deeper. And, at the same time, it would gradually + increase in breadth; as the rising sea, covering more of the land, would + occupy a wider space between the edge of the reef and what remained of the + land. Thus the rising sea would eventually convert a large island with a + fringing reef into a small island surrounded by an encircling reef. And it + will be obvious that when the rising of the sea has gone so far as + completely to cover the highest points of the island, the reef will have + passed into the condition of an atoll. + </p> + <p> + But how is it possible that the relative level of the land and sea should + be altered to this extent? Clearly, only in one of two ways: either the + sea must have risen over those areas which are now covered by atolls and + encircling reefs; or, the land upon which the sea rests must have been + depressed to a corresponding extent. + </p> + <p> + If the sea has risen, its rise must have taken place over the whole world + simultaneously, and it must have risen to the same height over all parts + of the coral zone. Grounds have been shown for the belief that the general + level of the sea may have been different at different times; it has been + suggested, for example, that the accumulation of ice about the poles + during one of the cold periods of the earth's history necessarily implies + a diminution in the volume of the sea proportioned to the amount of its + water thus permanently locked up in the Arctic and Antarctic ice-cellars; + while, in the warm periods, the greater or less disappearance of the polar + ice-cap implies a corresponding addition of water to the ocean. And no + doubt this reasoning must be admitted to be sound in principle; though it + is very hard to say what practical effect the additions and subtractions + thus made have had on the level of the ocean; inasmuch as such additions + and subtractions might be either intensified or nullified, by + contemporaneous changes in the level of the land. And no one has yet shown + that any such great melting of polar ice, and consequent raising of the + level of the water of the ocean, has taken place since the existing atolls + began to be formed. + </p> + <p> + In the absence of any evidence that the sea has ever risen to the extent + required to give rise to the encircling reefs and the atolls, Mr. Darwin + adopted the opposite hypothesis, viz., that the land has undergone + extensive and slow depression in those localities in which these + structures exist. + </p> + <p> + It seems, at first, a startling paradox, to suppose that the land is less + fixed than the sea; but that such is the case is the uniform testimony of + geology. Beds of sandstone or limestone, thousands of feet thick, and all + full of marine remains, occur in various parts of the earth's surface, and + prove, beyond a doubt, that when these beds were formed, that portion of + the sea-bottom which they then occupied underwent a slow and gradual + depression to a distance which cannot have been less than the thickness of + those beds, and may have been very much greater. In supposing, therefore, + that the great areas of the Pacific and of the Indian Ocean, over which + atolls and encircling reefs are found scattered, have undergone a + depression of some hundreds, or, it may be, thousands of feet, Mr. Darwin + made a supposition which had nothing forced or improbable, but was + entirely in accordance with what we know to have taken place over + similarly extensive areas, in other periods of the world's history. But + Mr. Darwin subjected his hypothesis to an ingenious indirect test. If his + view be correct, it is clear that neither atolls, nor encircling reefs, + should be found in those portions of the ocean in which we have reason to + believe, on independent grounds, that the sea-bottom has long been either + stationary, or slowly rising. Now it is known that, as a general rule, the + level of the land is either stationary, or is undergoing a slow upheaval, + in the neighborhood of active volcanoes; and, therefore, neither atolls + nor encircling reefs ought to be found in regions in which volcanoes are + numerous and active. And this turns out to be the case. Appended to Mr. + Darwin's great work on coral reefs, there is a map on which atolls and + encircling reefs are indicated by one colour, fringing reefs by another, + and active volcanoes by a third. And it is at once obvious that the lines + of active volcanoes lie around the margins of the areas occupied by the + atolls and the encircling reefs. It is exactly as if the upheaving + volcanic agencies had lifted up the edges of these great areas, while + their centres had undergone a corresponding depression. An atoll area may, + in short, be pictured as a kind of basin, the margins of which have been + pushed up by the subterranean forces, to which the craters of the + volcanoes have, at intervals, given vent. + </p> + <p> + Thus we must imagine the area of the Pacific now covered by the Polynesian + Archipelago, as having been, at some former time, occupied by large + islands, or, may be, by a great continent, with the ordinarily diversified + surface of plain, and hill, and mountain chain. The shores of this great + land were doubtless fringed by coral reefs; and, as it slowly underwent + depression, the hilly regions, converted into islands, became, at first, + surrounded by fringing reefs, and then, as depression went on, these + became converted into encircling reefs, and these, finally, into atolls, + until a maze of reefs and coral-girdled islets took the place of the + original land masses. + </p> + <p> + Thus the atolls and the encircling reefs furnish us with clear, though + indirect, evidence of changes in the physical geography of large parts of + the earth's surface; and even, as my lamented friend, the late Professor + Jukes,<a href="#linknote-124" name="linknoteref-124" id="linknoteref-124"><small>124</small></a> + has suggested, give us indications of the manner in which some of the most + puzzling facts connected with the distribution of animals have been + brought about. For example, Australia and New Guinea are separated by + Torres Straits, a broad belt of sea one hundred or one hundred and twenty + miles wide. Nevertheless, there is in many respects a curious resemblance + between the land animals which inhabit New Guinea and the land animals + which inhabit Australia. But, at the same time, the marine shellfish which + are found in the shallow waters of the shores of New Guinea are quite + different from those which are met with upon the coasts of Australia. Now, + the eastern end of Torres Straits is full of atolls, which, in fact, form + the northern termination of the Great Barrier Reef which skirts the + eastern coast of Australia. It follows, therefore, that the eastern end of + Torres Straits is an area of depression, and it is very possible, and on + many grounds highly probable, that, in former times, Australia and New + Guinea were directly connected together, and that Torres Straits did not + exist. If this were the case, the existence of cassowaries and of + marsupial quadrupeds, both in New Guinea and in Australia, becomes + intelligible; while the difference between the littoral molluscs of the + north and the south shores of Torres Straits is readily explained by the + great probability that, when the depression in question took place, and + what was, at first, an arm of the sea became converted into a strait + separating Australia from New Guinea, the northern shore of this new sea + became tenanted with marine animals from the north, while the southern + shore was peopled by immigrants from the already existing marine + Australian fauna. + </p> + <p> + Inasmuch as the growth of the reef depends upon that of successive + generations of coral polypes, and as each generation takes a certain time + to grow to its full size, and can only separate its calcareous skeleton + from the water in which it lives at a certain rate, it is clear that the + reefs are records not only of changes in physical geography, but of the + lapse of time. It is by no means easy, however, to estimate the exact + value of reef chronology, and the attempts which have been made to + determine the rate at which a reef grows vertically have yielded anything + but precise results. A cautious writer, Mr. Dana,<a href="#linknote-125" + name="linknoteref-125" id="linknoteref-125"><small>125</small></a> whose + extensive study of corals and coral reefs makes him an eminently competent + judge, states his conclusion in the following terms:— + </p> + <p> + "The rate of growth of the common branching madrepore is not over one and + a half inches a year. As the branches are open, this would not be + equivalent to more than half an inch in height of solid coral for the + whole surface covered by the madrepore; and, as they are also porous, to + not over three-eighths of an inch of solid limestone. But a coral + plantation has large bare patches without corals, and the coral sands are + widely distributed by currents, part of them to depths over one hundred + feet where there are no living corals; not more than one-sixth of the + surface of a reef region is, in fact, covered with growing species. This + reduces the three-eighths to ONE-SIXTEENTH. Shells and other organic + relics may contribute one-fourth as much as corals. At the outside, the + average upward increase of the whole reef-ground per year would not exceed + ONE-EIGHTH of an inch. + </p> + <p> + "Now some reefs are at least two thousand feet thick, which at one-eighth + of an inch a year, corresponds to one hundred and ninety-two thousand + years."* + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 591. +</pre> + <p> + Halve, or quarter, this estimate if you will, in order to be certain of + erring upon the right side, and still there remains a prodigious period + during which the ancestors of existing coral polypes have been + undisturbedly at work; and during which, therefore, the climatal + conditions over the coral area must have been much what they are now. + </p> + <p> + And all this lapse of time has occurred within the most recent period of + the history of the earth. The remains of reefs formed by coral polypes of + different kinds from those which exist now, enter largely into the + composition of the limestones of the Jurassic period;<a + href="#linknote-126" name="linknoteref-126" id="linknoteref-126"><small>126</small></a> + and still more widely different coral polypes have contributed their quota + to the vast thickness of the carboniferous and Devonian strata. Then as + regards the latter group of rocks in America, the high authority already + quoted tells us:— + </p> + <p> + "The Upper Helderberg period is eminently the coral reef period of the + palaeozoic ages. Many of the rocks abound in coral, and are as truly coral + reefs as the modern reefs of the Pacific. The corals are sometimes + standing on the rocks in the position they had when growing: others are + lying in fragments, as they were broken and heaped by the waves; and + others were reduced to a compact limestone by the finer trituration before + consolidation into rock. This compact variety is the most common kind + among the coral reef rocks of the present seas; and it often contains but + few distinct fossils, although formed in water that abounded in life. At + the fall of the Ohio, near Louisville, there is a magnificent display of + the old reef. Hemispherical Favosites, five or six feet in diameter, lie + there nearly as perfect as when they were covered by their flowerlike + polypes; and besides these, there are various branching corals, and a + profusion of Cyathophyllia, or cup-corals."* + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 272. +</pre> + <p> + Thus, in all the great periods of the earth's history of which we know + anything, a part of the then living matter has had the form of polypes, + competent to separate from the water of the sea the carbonate of lime + necessary for their own skeletons. Grain by grain, and particle by + particle, they have built up vast masses of rock, the thickness of which + is measured by hundreds of feet, and their area by thousands of square + miles. The slow oscillations of the crust of the earth, producing great + changes in the distribution of land and water, have often obliged the + living matter of the coral-builders to shift the locality of its + operations; and, by variation and adaptation to these modifications of + condition, its forms have as often changed. The work it has done in the + past is, for the most part, swept away, but fragments remain, and, if + there were no other evidence, suffice to prove the general constancy of + the operations of Nature in this world, through periods of almost + inconceivable duration. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NOTES + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AUTOBIOGRAPHY + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ Autobiography: Huxley's + account of this sketch, written in 1889, is as follows: "A man who is + bringing out a series of portraits of celebrities, with a sketch of their + career attached, has bothered me out of my life for something to go with + my portrait, and to escape the abominable bad taste of some of the + notices, I have done that."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ pre-Boswellian epoch: the + time before Boswell. James Boswell (1740-1795) wrote the famous Life of + Samuel Johnson. Mr. Leslie Stephen declares that this book "became the + first specimen of a new literary type." "It is a full-length portrait of a + man's domestic life with enough picturesque detail to enable us to see him + through the eyes of private friendship. . . ." A number of biographers + since Boswell have imitated his method; and Leslie Stephen believes that + "we owe it in some degree to his example that we have such delightful + books as Lockhart's Life of Scott or Mr. Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ "Bene qui latuit, bene + vixit": from Ovid. He who has kept himself well hidden, has lived well.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ Prince George of Cambridge: + the grandson of King George III, second Duke of Cambridge, and + Commander-in-chief of the British Army.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Herbert Spencer (1820—1903): + a celebrated English philosopher and powerful advocate of the doctrine of + evolution. Spencer is regarded as one of the most profound thinkers of + modern times. He was one of Huxley's closest friends.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ in partibus infidelium: in + the domain of the unbelievers.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ "sweet south upon a bed of + violets." Cf. Twelfth Night, Act I, sc. I, l. 5. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound + That breathes upon a bank of violets, + Stealing and giving odour. +</pre> + <p> + For the reading "sweet south" instead of "sweet sound," see Rolfe's + edition of Twelfth Night.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ "Lehrjahre": + apprenticeship. + </p> + <p> + Charing Cross School of Medicine: a school connected with the Charing + Cross Hospital in the Strand, London.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ Nelson: Horatio Nelson, a + celebrated English Admiral born in Norfolk, England, 1758, and died on + board the Victory at Trafalgar, 1805. It was before the battle off Cape + Trafalgar that Nelson hoisted his famous signal, "England expects every + man will do his duty." Cf. Tennyson's Ode to the Duke of Wellington, + stanza VI, for a famous tribute to Nelson.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ middies: abbreviated form + for midshipmen.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ Suites a Buffon: sequels + to Buffon. Buffon (1707-1781) was a French naturalist who wrote many + volumes on science.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-12" id="linknote-12"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ Linnean Society: a + scientific society formed in 1788 under the auspices of several fellows of + the Royal Society.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-13" id="linknote-13"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 13 (<a href="#linknoteref-13">return</a>)<br /> [ Royal Society: The Royal + Society for Improving Natural Knowledge; the oldest scientific society in + Great Britain, and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded by Charles + II, in 1660, its nucleus being an association of learned men already in + existence. It is supposed to be identical with the Invisible College which + Boyle mentions in 1646. It was incorporated under the name of The Royal + Society in 1661. The publications of the Royal Society are called + Philosophical Transactions. The society has close connection with the + government, and has assisted the government in various important + scientific undertakings among which may be mentioned Parry's North Pole + expedition. The society also distributes $20,000 yearly for the promotion + of scientific research.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-14" id="linknote-14"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 14 (<a href="#linknoteref-14">return</a>)<br /> [ Rastignac: a character in + Le Pere Goriot. At the close of the story Rastignac says, "A nous deux, + maintenant":—Henceforth there is war between us.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-15" id="linknote-15"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 15 (<a href="#linknoteref-15">return</a>)<br /> [ Pere Goriot: a novel of + Balzac's with a plot similar to King Lear.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-16" id="linknote-16"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 16 (<a href="#linknoteref-16">return</a>)<br /> [ Professor Tyndall + (1820-1893): a distinguished British physicist and member of the Royal + Society. He explored with Huxley the glaciers of Switzerland. His work in + electricity, radiant heat, light and acoustics gave him a foremost place + in science.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-17" id="linknote-17"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 17 (<a href="#linknoteref-17">return</a>)<br /> [ Ecclesiastical spirit: + the spirit manifested by the clergy of England in Huxley's time against + the truths of science. The clergy considered scientific truth to be + disastrous to religious truth. Huxley's attitude toward the teaching of + religious truth is illuminated by this quotation, which he uses to explain + his own position: "I have the fullest confidence that in the reading and + explaining of the Bible, what the children will be taught will be the + great truths of Christian Life and conduct, which all of us desire they + should know, and that no effort will be made to cram into their poor + little minds, theological dogmas which their tender age prevents them from + understanding." Huxley defines his idea of a church as a place in which, + "week by week, services should be devoted, not to the iteration of + abstract propositions in theology, but to the setting before men's minds + of an ideal of true, just and pure living; a place in which those who are + weary of the burden of daily cares should find a moment's rest in the + contemplation of the higher life which is possible for all, though + attained by so few; a place in which the man of strife and of business + should have time to think how small, after all, are the rewards he covets + compared with peace and charity."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-18" id="linknote-18"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 18 (<a href="#linknoteref-18">return</a>)<br /> [ New Reformation: Huxley + writes: "We are in the midst of a gigantic movement greater than that + which preceded and produced the Reformation, and really only the + continuation of that movement. . . . But this organization will be the + work of generations of men, and those who further it most will be those + who teach men to rest in no lie, and to rest in no verbal delusion."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE (1866) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-19" id="linknote-19"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 19 (<a href="#linknoteref-19">return</a>)<br /> [ On the Advisableness of + Improving Natural Knowledge: from Method and Results: also published in + Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.] + </p> + <p> + For the history of the times mentioned in this essay, see Green's Short + History of the English People.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-20" id="linknote-20"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 20 (<a href="#linknoteref-20">return</a>)<br /> [ The very spot: St. + Martin's Borough Hall and Public Library, on Charing Cross Road, near + Trafalgar Square.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-21" id="linknote-21"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 21 (<a href="#linknoteref-21">return</a>)<br /> [ Defoe (1661-1731): an + English novelist and political writer. On account of his political + writings Defoe was sentenced to stand in the pillory, and to be + "imprisoned during the Queen's pleasure." During this imprisonment he + wrote many articles. Later in life he wrote Robinson Crusoe, The Fortunes + and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, Journal of the Plague Year, and other + books less well known.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-22" id="linknote-22"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 22 (<a href="#linknoteref-22">return</a>)<br /> [ unholy cursing and + crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys: John Wilmot, the second Earl + of Rochester, and Sir Charles Sedley, were both friends of Charles II, and + were noted for biting wit and profligacy. Green, in his Short History of + the English People, thus describes them: "Lord Rochester was a fashionable + poet, and the titles of some of his poems are such as no pen of our day + could copy. Sir Charles Sedley was a fashionable wit, and the foulness of + his words made even the porters in the Covent Garden belt him from the + balcony when he ventured to address them."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-23" id="linknote-23"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 23 (<a href="#linknoteref-23">return</a>)<br /> [ Laud: Archbishop of + Canterbury. Laud was born in 1573, and beheaded at London in 1645. He was + throughout the reign of Charles I a staunch supporter of the King. He was + impeached by the Long Parliament in 1640 and executed on Tower Hill, in + 1645.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-24" id="linknote-24"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 24 (<a href="#linknoteref-24">return</a>)<br /> [ selenography: the + scientific study of the moon with special reference to its physical + condition.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-25" id="linknote-25"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 25 (<a href="#linknoteref-25">return</a>)<br /> [ Torricellian experiment: + a reference to the discovery of the principle of the barometer by the + Italian, Torricelli, in 1643.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-26" id="linknote-26"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 26 (<a href="#linknoteref-26">return</a>)<br /> [ Sir Francis Bacon + (1561-1626): Bacon endeavored to teach that civilization cannot be brought + to a high point except as man applies himself to the study of the secrets + of nature, and uses these discoveries for inventions which will give him + power over his environment. The chief value of the work was that it called + attention to the uses of induction and to the experimental study of facts. + See Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy, page 243.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-27" id="linknote-27"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 27 (<a href="#linknoteref-27">return</a>)<br /> [ The learned Dr. Wallis + (1616-1703): Dr. Wallis is regarded as the greatest of Newton's + predecessors in mathematical history. His works are numerous and are on a + great variety of subjects. He was one of the first members of the Royal + Society.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-28" id="linknote-28"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 28 (<a href="#linknoteref-28">return</a>)<br /> [ "New Philosophy": Bacon's + ideas on science and philosophy as set forth in his works.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-29" id="linknote-29"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 29 (<a href="#linknoteref-29">return</a>)<br /> [ Royal Society: see note, + page 11.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-30" id="linknote-30"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 30 (<a href="#linknoteref-30">return</a>)<br /> [ Newton, Sir Isaac + (1642-1721): a distinguished natural philosopher of England. Newton was + elected a member of the Royal Society in 1672. His most important + scientific accomplishment was the establishing of the law of universal + gravitation. The story of the fall of the apple was first related by + Voltaire to whom it was given by Newton's niece.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-31" id="linknote-31"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 31 (<a href="#linknoteref-31">return</a>)<br /> [ "Philosophical + Transactions": the publications of the Royal Society.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-32" id="linknote-32"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 32 (<a href="#linknoteref-32">return</a>)<br /> [ Galileo (1564-1642): a + famous Italian astronomer. His most noted work was the construction of the + thermometer and a telescope. He discovered the satellites of Jupiter in + 1610. In 1610, also, he observed the sun's spots. His views were condemned + by the Pope in 1616 and in 1633 he was forced by the Inquisition to abjure + the Copernican theory.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-33" id="linknote-33"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 33 (<a href="#linknoteref-33">return</a>)<br /> [ Vesalius (1514-1564): a + noted Belgian anatomist.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-34" id="linknote-34"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 34 (<a href="#linknoteref-34">return</a>)<br /> [ Harvey (1578-1657): an + English physiologist and anatomist. He is noted especially for his + discovery of the circulation of the blood.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-35" id="linknote-35"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 35 (<a href="#linknoteref-35">return</a>)<br /> [ Subtle speculations: + Selby gives examples from questions discussed by Thomas Aquinas. Whether + all angels belong to the same genus, whether demons are evil by nature, or + by will, whether they can change one substance into another, . . . whether + an angel can move from one point to another without passing through + intermediate space.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-36" id="linknote-36"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 36 (<a href="#linknoteref-36">return</a>)<br /> [ Schoolmen: a term used to + designate the followers of scholasticism, a philosophy of dogmatic + religion which assumed a certain subject-matter as absolute and + unquestionable. The duty of the Schoolman was to explain church doctrine; + these explanations were characterized by fine distinctions and by an + absence of real content. See Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy; + also Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-37" id="linknote-37"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 37 (<a href="#linknoteref-37">return</a>)<br /> [ "writ in water": an + allusion to Keats' request that the words "Here lies one whose name was + writ in water" be his epitaph. The words are inscribed on his tomb in the + Protestant Cemetery at Rome.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-38" id="linknote-38"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 38 (<a href="#linknoteref-38">return</a>)<br /> [ Lord Brouncker: The first + president of the Royal Society after its incorporation in 1662 was Lord + Brouneker.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-39" id="linknote-39"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 39 (<a href="#linknoteref-39">return</a>)<br /> [ revenant: ghost.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-40" id="linknote-40"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 40 (<a href="#linknoteref-40">return</a>)<br /> [ Boyle: Robert Boyle + (1627-1691): a British chemist and natural philosopher who was noted + especially for his discovery of Boyle's law of the elasticity of air.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-41" id="linknote-41"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 41 (<a href="#linknoteref-41">return</a>)<br /> [ Evelyn (1620-1706): an + English author and member of the Royal Society. His most important work is + the Diary, valuable for the full account which it gives of the manners and + customs of the time.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-42" id="linknote-42"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 42 (<a href="#linknoteref-42">return</a>)<br /> [ The Restoration: In + English history the re-establishing of the English monarchy with the + return of King Charles II in 1660; by extension the whole reign of Charles + II: as, the dramatists of the Restoration. Century Dictionary.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-43" id="linknote-43"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 43 (<a href="#linknoteref-43">return</a>)<br /> [ Aladdin's lamps: a + reference to the story of the Wonderful Lamp in the Arabian Nights. The + magic lamp brought marvelous good fortune to the poor widow's son who + possessed it. Cf. also Lowell's Aladdin:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + When I was a beggarly boy, + And lived in a cellar damp, + I had not a friend or a toy, + But I had Aladdin's lamp; + When I could not sleep for the cold, + I had fire enough in my brain, + And builded, with roofs of gold, + My beautiful castles in Spain!] +</pre> + <p> + <a name="linknote-44" id="linknote-44"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 44 (<a href="#linknoteref-44">return</a>)<br /> [ "When in heaven the + stars": from Tennyson's Specimens of a Translation of the Iliad in Blank + Verse.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-45" id="linknote-45"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 45 (<a href="#linknoteref-45">return</a>)<br /> [ "increasing God's honour + and bettering man's estate": Bacon's statement of his purpose in writing + the Advancement of Learning.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-46" id="linknote-46"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 46 (<a href="#linknoteref-46">return</a>)<br /> [ For example, etc.: could + the sentence beginning thus be written in better form?] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-47" id="linknote-47"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 47 (<a href="#linknoteref-47">return</a>)<br /> [ Rumford (1738-1814): + Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an eminent scientist. Rumford was born + in America and educated at Harvard. Suspected of loyalty to the King at + the time of the revolution, he was imprisoned. Acquitted, he went to + England where he became prominent in politics and science. Invested with + the title of Count by the Holy Roman Empire, he chose Rumford for his + title after the name of the little New Hampshire town where he had taught. + He gave a large sum of money to Harvard College to found the Rumford + professorship of science.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-48" id="linknote-48"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 48 (<a href="#linknoteref-48">return</a>)<br /> [ eccentric: out of the + centre.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A LIBERAL EDUCATION (1868) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-49" id="linknote-49"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 49 (<a href="#linknoteref-49">return</a>)<br /> [ A Liberal Education: from + Science and Education; also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and + Reviews.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-50" id="linknote-50"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 50 (<a href="#linknoteref-50">return</a>)<br /> [ Ichabod: cf. 1 Sam. iv, + 21.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-51" id="linknote-51"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 51 (<a href="#linknoteref-51">return</a>)<br /> [ senior wranglership: in + Cambridge University, England, one who has attained the first class in the + elementary division of the public examination for honors in pure and mixed + mathematics, commonly called the mathematical tripos, those who compose + the second rank of honors being designated senior optimes, and those of + the third order junior optimes. The student taking absolutely the first + place in the mathematical tripos used to be called senior wrangler, those + following next in the same division being respectively termed second, + third, fourth, etc., wranglers. Century Dictionary.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-52" id="linknote-52"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 52 (<a href="#linknoteref-52">return</a>)<br /> [ double-first: any + candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Oxford University who + takes first-class honors in both classics and mathematics is said to have + won a double-first.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-53" id="linknote-53"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 53 (<a href="#linknoteref-53">return</a>)<br /> [ Retzsch (1779-1857): a + well-known German painter and engraver.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-54" id="linknote-54"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 54 (<a href="#linknoteref-54">return</a>)<br /> [ Test-Act: an English + statute of 1673. It compelled all persons holding office under the crown + to take the oaths of supremacy and of allegiance, to receive the sacrament + according to the usage of the Church of England, and to subscribe to the + Declaration against Transubstantiation.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-55" id="linknote-55"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 55 (<a href="#linknoteref-55">return</a>)<br /> [ Poll: an abbreviation and + transliteration of [Footnote Greek words], "the mob"; university slang for + the whole body of students taking merely the degree of Bachelor of Arts, + at Cambridge.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-56" id="linknote-56"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 56 (<a href="#linknoteref-56">return</a>)<br /> [ pluck: the rejection of a + student, after examinations, who does not come up to the standard.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON A PIECE OF CHALK + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-57" id="linknote-57"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 57 (<a href="#linknoteref-57">return</a>)<br /> [ On a Piece of Chalk: a + lecture to working-men from Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-58" id="linknote-58"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 58 (<a href="#linknoteref-58">return</a>)<br /> [ Needles of the Isle of + Wight: the needles are three white, pointed rocks of chalk, resting on + dark-colored bases, and rising abruptly from the sea to a height of 100 + feet. Baedeker's Great Britain.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-59" id="linknote-59"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 59 (<a href="#linknoteref-59">return</a>)<br /> [ Lulworth in Dorset, to + Flamborough Head: Lulworth is on the southern coast of England, west of + the Isle of Wight: Flamborough Head is on the northeastern coast of + England and extends into the German Ocean.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-60" id="linknote-60"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 60 (<a href="#linknoteref-60">return</a>)<br /> [ Weald: a name given to an + oval-shaped chalk area in England, beginning near the Straits of Dover, + and extending into the counties of Kent, Surrey, Hants, and Sussex.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-61" id="linknote-61"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 61 (<a href="#linknoteref-61">return</a>)<br /> [ Lieut. Brooke: Brooke + devised an apparatus for deep-sea sounding from which the weight necessary + to sink the instrument rapidly, was detached when it reached the bottom. + The object was to relieve the strain on the rope caused by rapid + soundings. Improved apparatuses have been invented since the time of + Brooke.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-62" id="linknote-62"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 62 (<a href="#linknoteref-62">return</a>)<br /> [ Ehrenberg (1795-1876): a + German naturalist noted for his studies of Infusoria.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-63" id="linknote-63"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 63 (<a href="#linknoteref-63">return</a>)<br /> [ Bailey of West Point + (1811-1857): an American naturalist noted for his researches in + microscopy.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-64" id="linknote-64"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 64 (<a href="#linknoteref-64">return</a>)<br /> [ enterprise of laying down + the telegraph-cable: the first Atlantic telegraph-cable between England + and America was laid in 1858 by Cyrus W. Field of New York. Messages were + sent over it for a few weeks; then it ceased to act. A permanent cable was + laid by Mr. Field in 1866.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-65" id="linknote-65"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 65 (<a href="#linknoteref-65">return</a>)<br /> [ Dr. Wallich (1786-1854): + a Danish botanist and member of the Royal Society.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-66" id="linknote-66"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 66 (<a href="#linknoteref-66">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Sorby: President of + the Geological Society of England, and author of many papers on subjects + connected with physical geography.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-67" id="linknote-67"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 67 (<a href="#linknoteref-67">return</a>)<br /> [ Sir Charles Lyell + (1797-1875): a British geologist, and one of the first to uphold Darwin's + Origin of Species.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-68" id="linknote-68"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 68 (<a href="#linknoteref-68">return</a>)<br /> [ Echinus: the sea-urchin; + an animal which dwells in a spheroidal shell built up from polygonal + plates, and covered with sharp spines.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-69" id="linknote-69"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 69 (<a href="#linknoteref-69">return</a>)<br /> [ Somme: a river of + northern France which flows into the English Channel northeast of Dieppe.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-70" id="linknote-70"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 70 (<a href="#linknoteref-70">return</a>)<br /> [ the chipped flints of + Hoxne and Amiens: the rude instruments which were made by primitive man + were of chipped flint. Numerous discoveries of large flint implements have + been made in the north of France, near Amiens, and in England. The first + noted flint implements were discovered in Hoxne, Suffolk, England, 1797. + Cf. Evans' Ancient Stone Implements and Lyell's Antiquity of Man.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-71" id="linknote-71"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 71 (<a href="#linknoteref-71">return</a>)<br /> [ Rev. Mr. Gunn + (1800-1881): an English naturalist. Mr. Gunn sent from Tasmania a large + number of plants and animals now in the British Museum.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-72" id="linknote-72"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 72 (<a href="#linknoteref-72">return</a>)<br /> [ "the whirligig of time": + cf. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act V, se. I, l. 395.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-73" id="linknote-73"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 73 (<a href="#linknoteref-73">return</a>)<br /> [ Euphrates and Hiddekel: + cf. Genesis ii, 14.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-74" id="linknote-74"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 74 (<a href="#linknoteref-74">return</a>)<br /> [ the great river, the + river of Babylon: cf. Genesis xv, 18] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-75" id="linknote-75"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 75 (<a href="#linknoteref-75">return</a>)<br /> [ Without haste, but + without rest: from Goethe's Zahme Xenien. In a letter to his sister, + Huxley says: "And then perhaps by the following of my favorite motto,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "'Wie das Gestirn, + Ohne Hast, + Ohne Rast'— + + something may be done, and some of Sister Lizzie's fond + imaginations turn out not altogether untrue." The quotation entire + is as follows:— + + Wie das Gestirn, + Ohne Hast, + Aber ohne Rast, + Drehe sich jeder + Um die eigne Last.] +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION (1882) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-76" id="linknote-76"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 76 (<a href="#linknoteref-76">return</a>)<br /> [ The Principal Subjects of + Education: an extract from the essay, Science and Art in Relation to + Education.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-77" id="linknote-77"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 77 (<a href="#linknoteref-77">return</a>)<br /> [ this discussion: "this" + refers to the last sentence in the preceding paragraph, in which Huxley + says that it will be impossible to determine the amount of time to be + given to the principal subjects of education until it is determined "what + the principal subjects of education ought to be."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-78" id="linknote-78"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 78 (<a href="#linknoteref-78">return</a>)<br /> [ Francis Bacon: cf. note + [Footnote 26].] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-79" id="linknote-79"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 79 (<a href="#linknoteref-79">return</a>)<br /> [ the best chance of being + happy: In connection with Huxley's work on the London School Board, his + biographer says that Huxley did not regard "intellectual training only + from the utilitarian point of view; he insisted, e. g., on the value of + reading for amusement as one of the most valuable uses to hardworked + people."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-80" id="linknote-80"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 80 (<a href="#linknoteref-80">return</a>)<br /> [ "Harmony in grey": cf. + with l. 34 in Browning's Andrea del Sarto.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-81" id="linknote-81"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 81 (<a href="#linknoteref-81">return</a>)<br /> [ Hobbes (1588-1679): noted + for his views of human nature and of politics. According to Minto, "The + merits ascribed to his style are brevity, simplicity and precision."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-82" id="linknote-82"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 82 (<a href="#linknoteref-82">return</a>)<br /> [ Bishop Berkeley + (1685-1753): an Irish prelate noted for his philosophical writings and + especially for his theory of vision which was the foundation for modern + investigations of the subject. "His style has always been esteemed + admirable; simple, felicitous and sweetly melodious. His dialogues are + sustained with great skill." Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-83" id="linknote-83"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 83 (<a href="#linknoteref-83">return</a>)<br /> [ We have been recently + furnished with in prose: The Iliad of Homer translated by Lang, Leaf and + Myers, the first edition of which appeared in 1882, is probably the one to + which Huxley refers. The Odyssey, translated by Butcher and Lang, appeared + in 1879. Among the best of the more recent translations of Homer are the + Odyssey by George Herbert Palmer; the Iliad by Arthur S. Way, and the + Odyssey by the same author.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-84" id="linknote-84"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 84 (<a href="#linknoteref-84">return</a>)<br /> [ Locke (1632-1704): an + English philosopher of great influence. His chief work is An Essay + Concerning Human Understanding.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-85" id="linknote-85"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 85 (<a href="#linknoteref-85">return</a>)<br /> [ Franciscus Bacon sic + cogitavit: thus Francis Bacon thought.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION (1863) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-86" id="linknote-86"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 86 (<a href="#linknoteref-86">return</a>)<br /> [ The Method of Scientific + Investigation is an extract from the third of six lectures given to + workingmen on The Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature in + Darwiniana.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-87" id="linknote-87"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 87 (<a href="#linknoteref-87">return</a>)<br /> [ these terrible apparatus: + apparatus is the form for both the singular and plural; apparatuses is + another form for the plural.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-88" id="linknote-88"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 88 (<a href="#linknoteref-88">return</a>)<br /> [ Incident in one of + Moliere's plays: the allusion is to the hero, M. Jourdain in the play, "La + Bourgeois Gentilbomme."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-89" id="linknote-89"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 89 (<a href="#linknoteref-89">return</a>)<br /> [ these kind: modern + writers regard kind as singular. Shakespeare treated it as a plural noun, + as "These kind of knaves I knew."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-90" id="linknote-90"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 90 (<a href="#linknoteref-90">return</a>)<br /> [ Newton: cf. [Footnote + 30].] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-91" id="linknote-91"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 91 (<a href="#linknoteref-91">return</a>)<br /> [ Laplace (1749-1827): a + celebrated French astronomer and mathematician. He is best known for his + theory of the formation of the planetary systems, the so-called "nebular + hypothesis." Until recently this hypothesis has generally been accepted in + its main outlines. It is now being supplanted by the "Spiral Nebular + Hypothesis" developed by Professors Moulton and Chamberlin of the + University of Chicago. See Moulton's Introduction to Astronomy, p. 463.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE (1868) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-92" id="linknote-92"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 92 (<a href="#linknoteref-92">return</a>)<br /> [ On the Physical Basis of + Life: from Methods and Results; also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses + and Reviews. "The substance of this paper was contained in a discourse + which was delivered in Edinburgh on the evening of Sunday, the 8th of + November, 1868—being the first of a series of Sunday evening + addresses upon non-theological topics, instituted by the Rev. J. + Cranbrook. Some phrases, which could possess only a transitory and local + interest, have been omitted; instead of the newspaper report of the + Archbishop of York's address, his Grace's subsequently published pamphlet + On the Limits of Philosophical inquiry is quoted, and I have, here and + there, endeavoured to express my meaning more fully and clearly than I + seem to have done in speaking—if I may judge by sundry criticisms + upon what I am supposed to have said, which have appeared. But in + substance, and, so far as my recollection serves, in form, what is here + written corresponds with what was there said."—Huxley.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-93" id="linknote-93"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 93 (<a href="#linknoteref-93">return</a>)<br /> [ Finner whale: a name + given to a whale which has a dorsal fin. A Finner whale commonly measures + from 60 to 90 feet in length.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-94" id="linknote-94"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 94 (<a href="#linknoteref-94">return</a>)<br /> [ A fortiori: with stronger + reason: still more conclusively.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-95" id="linknote-95"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 95 (<a href="#linknoteref-95">return</a>)<br /> [ well-known epigram: from + Goethe's Venetianische Epigramme. The following is a translation of the + passage: Why do the people push each other and shout? They want to work + for their living, bring forth children; and feed them as well as they + possibly can. . . . No man can attain to more, however much he may pretend + to the contrary.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-96" id="linknote-96"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 96 (<a href="#linknoteref-96">return</a>)<br /> [ Maelstroms: a celebrated + whirlpool or violent current in the Arctic Ocean, near the western coast + of Norway, between the islands of Moskenaso and Mosken, formerly supposed + to suck in and destroy everything that approached it at any time, but now + known not to be dangerous except under certain conditions. Century + Dictionary. Cf. also Poe's Descent into the Maelstrom.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-97" id="linknote-97"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 97 (<a href="#linknoteref-97">return</a>)<br /> [ Milne-Edwards + (1800-1885): a French naturalist. His Elements de Zoologie won him a great + reputation.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-98" id="linknote-98"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 98 (<a href="#linknoteref-98">return</a>)<br /> [ with such qualifications + as arises: a typographical error.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-99" id="linknote-99"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 99 (<a href="#linknoteref-99">return</a>)<br /> [ De Bary (1831-1888): a + German botanist noted especially for his researches in cryptogamic + botany.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-100" id="linknote-100"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 100 (<a href="#linknoteref-100">return</a>)<br /> [ No Man's Land: Huxley + probably intends no specific geographical reference. The expression is + common as a designation of some remote and unfrequented locality.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-101" id="linknote-101"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 101 (<a href="#linknoteref-101">return</a>)<br /> [ Kuhne (1837-1900): a + German physiologist and professor of science at Amsterdam and Heidelberg.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-102" id="linknote-102"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 102 (<a href="#linknoteref-102">return</a>)<br /> [ Debemur morti nos + nostraque: Horace—Ars Poetica, line 63. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + As forests change their foliage year by year, + Leaves, that come first, first fall and disappear; + So antique words die out, and in their room, + Others spring up, of vigorous growth and bloom; + Ourselves and all that's ours, to death are due, + And why should words not be mortal too? +</pre> + <p> + Martin's translation.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-103" id="linknote-103"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 103 (<a href="#linknoteref-103">return</a>)<br /> [ peau de chagrin: skin + of a wild ass.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-104" id="linknote-104"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 104 (<a href="#linknoteref-104">return</a>)<br /> [ Balzac (1799-1850): a + celebrated French novelist of the realistic school of fiction.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-105" id="linknote-105"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 105 (<a href="#linknoteref-105">return</a>)<br /> [ Barmecide feast: the + allusion is to a story in the Arabian Nights in which a member of the + Barmecide family places a succession of empty dishes before a beggar, + pretending that they contain a rich repast.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-106" id="linknote-106"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 106 (<a href="#linknoteref-106">return</a>)<br /> [ modus operandi: method + of working.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-107" id="linknote-107"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 107 (<a href="#linknoteref-107">return</a>)<br /> [ Martinus Scriblerus: a + reference to Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus written principally by John + Arbuthnot, and published in 1741. The purpose of the papers is given by + Warburton and Spence in the following extracts quoted from the Preface to + the Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus + Scriblerus in Elwin and Courthope's edition of Pope's works, vol. x, p. + 273:— "Mr. Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Dr. Swift, in conjunction, + formed the project of a satire on the abuses of human learning; and to + make it better received, proposed to execute it in the manner of Cervantes + (the original author of this species of satire) under a continued + narrative of feigned adventures. They had observed that those abuses still + kept their ground against all that the ablest and gravest authors could + say to discredit them; they concluded, therefore, the force of ridicule + was wanting to quicken their disgrace; and ridicule was here in its place, + when the abuses had been already detected by sober reasoning; and truth in + no danger to suffer by the premature use of so powerful an instrument."] + </p> + <p> + "The design of this work, as stated by Pope himself, is to ridicule all + the false tastes in learning under the character of a man of capacity + enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but injudiciously in + each. It was begun by a club of some of the greatest wits of the age—Lord + Oxford, the Bishop of Rochester, Pope, Congreve, Swift, Arbuthnot, and + others. Gay often held the pen; and Addison liked it very well, and was + not disinclined to come into it."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-108" id="linknote-108"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 108 (<a href="#linknoteref-108">return</a>)<br /> [ accounted for the + operation of the meat-jack: from the paper "To the learned inquisitor into + nature, Martinus Scriblerus: the society of free thinkers greeting." Elwin + and Courthope, Pope's works, vol. ?, p. 332.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-109" id="linknote-109"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 109 (<a href="#linknoteref-109">return</a>)<br /> [ The remainder of the + essay endeavors to meet the charge of materialism. The following is the + conclusion:—"In itself it is of little moment whether we express the + phaenomena of matter in terms of spirit; or the phaenomena of spirit in + terms of matter: matter may be regarded as a form of thought, thought may + be regarded as a property of matter—each statement has a certain + relative truth. But with a view to the progress of science, the + materialistic terminology is in every way to be preferred. For it connects + thought with the other phaenomena of the universe, and suggests inquiry + into the nature of those physical conditions, or concomitants of thought, + which are more or less accessible to us, and a knowledge of which may, in + future, help us to exercise the same kind of control over the world of + thought, as we already possess in respect of the material world; whereas, + the alternative, or spiritualistic, terminology is utterly barren, and + leads to nothing but obscurity and confusion of ideas. + </p> + <p> + "Thus there can be little doubt, that the further science advances, the + more extensively and consistently will all the phaenomena of Nature be + represented by materialistic formulae and symbols. But the man of science, + who, forgetting the limits of philosophical inquiry, slides from these + formulae and symbols into what is commonly understood by materialism, + seems to me to place himself on a level with the mathematician, who should + mistake the x's and y's with which he works his problems, for real + entities—and with this further disadvantage, as compared with the + mathematician, that the blunders of the latter are of no practical + consequence, while the errors of systematic materialism may paralyze the + energies and destroy the beauty of a life."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS (1870) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-110" id="linknote-110"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 110 (<a href="#linknoteref-110">return</a>)<br /> [ On Coral and Coral + Reefs: from Critiques and Addresses. The essay was published in 1870.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-111" id="linknote-111"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 111 (<a href="#linknoteref-111">return</a>)<br /> [ Sic et curalium: Thus + also the coral, as soon as it touches the air turns hard. It was a soft + plant under the water.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-112" id="linknote-112"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 112 (<a href="#linknoteref-112">return</a>)<br /> [ Boccone (1633-1704): a + noted Sicilian naturalist.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-113" id="linknote-113"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 113 (<a href="#linknoteref-113">return</a>)<br /> [ Marsigli (1658-1730): + an Italian soldier and naturalist. He wrote A Physical History of the + Sea.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-114" id="linknote-114"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 114 (<a href="#linknoteref-114">return</a>)<br /> [ "Traite du Corail": "I + made the coral bloom in vases full of sea-water, and I noticed that what + we believe to be the flower of this so-called plant was in reality only an + insect similar to a little nettle or polype. I had the pleasure to see the + paws or feet of this nettle move, and having placed the vase full of water + in which the coral was, near the fire, at a moderate heat, all the little + insects expanded, the nettle stretched out its feet and formed what M. de + Marsigli and I had taken for the petals of the flower. The calyx of this + so-called flower is the very body of the animal issued from its cell."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-115" id="linknote-115"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 115 (<a href="#linknoteref-115">return</a>)<br /> [ Reaumur (1683-1757): a + French physiologist and naturalist, best known as the inventor of the + Reaumur thermometer. He was a member of the French Academy of Science.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-116" id="linknote-116"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 116 (<a href="#linknoteref-116">return</a>)<br /> [ Bishop Wilson: Thomas + Wilson (1663-1755), bishop of the Isle of Man. Details of his life are + given in the folio edition of his works (1782). An appreciation of his + religious writings is given by Matthew Arnold in Culture and Anarchy. + Bishop Wilson's words, "To make reason and the will of God prevail," are + the theme of Arnold's essay, Sweetness and Light.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-117" id="linknote-117"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 117 (<a href="#linknoteref-117">return</a>)<br /> [ An eminent modern + writer: Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), eldest son of Thomas Arnold, + headmaster of Rugby; a distinguished critic and poet, and professor of + poetry at Oxford. The allusion is to Arnold's essay, Sweetness and Light. + The phrase, "sweetness and light," is one which Aesop uses in Swift's + Battle of the Books to sum up the superiority of the ancients over the + moderns. "As for us, the ancients, we are content, with the bee, to + pretend to nothing of our own beyond our wings and our voice, that is to + say, our flights and our language; for the rest, whatever we have got has + been by infinite labor and search, and ranging through every corner of + nature; the difference is, that instead of dirt and poison we have rather + chose to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with + the two noblest things, which are sweetness and light." Arnold's purpose + in the essay is to define the cultured man as one who endeavors to make + beauty and intelligence prevail everywhere.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-118" id="linknote-118"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 118 (<a href="#linknoteref-118">return</a>)<br /> [ Abbe Trembley + (1700-1784): a Swiss naturalist. He wrote "Memoires pour servir a + l'histoire d'un genre de polypes d'eau douce, a bras en forme de cornes."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-119" id="linknote-119"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 119 (<a href="#linknoteref-119">return</a>)<br /> [ Bernard de Jussieu + (1699-1776): a French botanist; founder of the natural classification of + plants. He was superintendent of the Trianon Gardens.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-120" id="linknote-120"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 120 (<a href="#linknoteref-120">return</a>)<br /> [ Guettard (1715-1786): a + French naturalist.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-121" id="linknote-121"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 121 (<a href="#linknoteref-121">return</a>)<br /> [ Monte Nuovo within the + old crater of Somma: Monte Nuovo, a mountain west of Naples; Somma, a + mountain north of Vesuvius which with its lofty, semicircular cliff + encircles the active cone of Vesuvius.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-122" id="linknote-122"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 122 (<a href="#linknoteref-122">return</a>)<br /> [ Mauritius: an island in + the Indian Ocean; Huxley visited the island when on the voyage with the + Rattlesnake. He wrote to his mother of his visit: "This island is, you + know, the scene of Saint Pierre's beautiful story of Paul and Virginia, + over which I suppose most people have sentimentalized at one time or + another of their lives. Until we reached here I did not know that the tale + was like the lady's improver—a fiction founded on fact, and that + Paul and Virginia were at one time flesh and blood, and that their + veritable dust was buried at Pamplemousses in a spot considered as one of + the lions of the place, and visited as classic ground."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-123" id="linknote-123"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 123 (<a href="#linknoteref-123">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Darwin's coral + reefs: The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, published in 1848.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-124" id="linknote-124"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 124 (<a href="#linknoteref-124">return</a>)<br /> [ Professor Jukes + (1811-1869): an English geologist.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-125" id="linknote-125"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 125 (<a href="#linknoteref-125">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Dana (1813-1895): a + well-known American geologist and mineralogist; a professor at Yale from + 1845. He wrote a number of books among which is Coral and Coral Reefs.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-126" id="linknote-126"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 126 (<a href="#linknoteref-126">return</a>)<br /> [ Jurassic period: that + part of the geological series which is older than the Cretaceous and newer + than the Triassic; so called from the predominance of rocks of this age in + the Jura Mountains. The three great divisions of fossiliferous rocks are + called the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REFERENCE BOOKS + </h2> + <p> + The following reference books are suggested for a more complete treatment + of various points in the text:—Andrews' History of England. Green's + Short History of the English People. Traill's Social England. Roger's A + Student's History of Philosophy. Royce's The Spirit of Modern Philosophy. + Huxley's Life and Letters. Smalley's Mr. Huxley, in Scribner's Magazine + for October, 1905. Darwin's Life and Letters. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1315 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Autobiography and Selected Essays + +Author: Thomas Henry Huxley + +Release Date: May 3, 2006 [EBook #1315] +Last Updated: January 20, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED ESSAYS + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + by Thomas Henry Huxley + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h5> + Note: The notes at the end of the book were originally referenced by page + number. I have instead inserted numbers within the text in the format [xx] + and cross-referenced these to the appropriate notes.—D.L. + </h5> + <h4> + Edited, with introduction and notes by Ada L. F. Snell Associate <br /> + Professor Of English Mount Holyoke College<br /> <br /> Riverside College + Classics Copyright 1909 + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> <b>PREFACE</b> </a><br /> <br /> <a + href="#link2H_INTR"> <b>INTRODUCTION</b> </a><br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> I — THE LIFE OF HUXLEY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> II — SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND + STYLE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> III — SUGGESTED STUDIES IN + SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY — + AUTOBIOGRAPHY [1] </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> ON THE + ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE [19] </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0009"> A LIBERAL EDUCATION [49] </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0010"> ON A PIECE OF CHALK [57] </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0011"> THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION [76] </a><br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION [86] + </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE + [92] </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS + [110] </a><br /><br /> <br /> <a href="#link2H_NOTE"> <b>NOTES</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> AUTOBIOGRAPHY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL + KNOWLEDGE (1866) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> A LIBERAL EDUCATION (1868) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> ON A PIECE OF CHALK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION (1882) + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION (1863) + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE (1868) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS (1870) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> REFERENCE BOOKS </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + The purpose of the following selections is to present to students of + English a few of Huxley's representative essays. Some of these selections + are complete; others are extracts. In the latter case, however, they are + not extracts in the sense of being incomplete wholes, for each selection + given will be found to have, in Aristotle's phrase, "a beginning, a + middle, and an end." That they are complete in themselves, although only + parts of whole essays, is due to the fact that Huxley, in order to make + succeeding material clear, often prepares the way with a long and careful + definition. Such is the nature of the extract A Liberal Education, in + reality a definition to make distinct and forcible his ideas on the + shortcomings of English schools. Such a definition, also, is The Method of + Scientific Investigation. + </p> + <p> + The footnotes are those of the author. Other notes on the text have been + included for the benefit of schools inadequately equipped with reference + books. It is hoped, however, that the notes may be found not to be so + numerous as to prevent the training of the student in a self-reliant and + scholarly use of dictionaries and reference books; it is hoped, also, that + they may serve to stimulate him to trace out for himself more completely + any subject connected with the text in which he may feel a peculiar + interest. It should be recognized that notes are of value only as they + develop power to read intelligently. If unintelligently relied upon, they + may even foster indifference and lazy mental habits. + </p> + <p> + I wish to express my obligation to Miss Flora Bridges, whose careful + reading of the manuscript has been most helpful, and to Professor Clara F. + Stevens, the head of the English Department at Mount Holyoke College, + whose very practical aid made this volume possible. + </p> + <p> + A. L. F. S. <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I — THE LIFE OF HUXLEY + </h2> + <p> + Of Huxley's life and of the forces which moulded his thought, the + Autobiography gives some account; but many facts which are significant are + slighted, and necessarily the later events of his life are omitted. To + supplement the story as given by him is the purpose of this sketch. The + facts for this account are gathered entirely from the Life and Letters of + Thomas Henry Huxley, by his son. For a real acquaintance with Huxley, the + student should consult this source for himself; he will count the reading + of the Life and Letters among the rare pleasures which have come to him + through books. + </p> + <p> + Thomas Henry Huxley was born on May 4, 1825. His autobiography gives a + full account of his parents, his early boyhood, and his education. Of + formal education, Huxley had little; but he had the richer schooling which + nature and life give an eager mind. He read widely; he talked often with + older people; he was always investigating the why of things. He kept a + journal in which he noted thoughts gathered from books, and ideas on the + causes of certain phenomena. In this journal he frequently wrote what he + had done and had set himself to do in the way of increasing his knowledge. + Self-conducted, also, was his later education at the Charing Cross + Hospital. Here, like Stevenson in his university days, Huxley seemed to be + idle, but in reality, he was always busy on his own private end. So + constantly did he work over the microscope that the window at which he sat + came to be dubbed by his fellow students "The Sign of the Head and + Microscope." Moreover, in his regular courses at Charing Cross, he seems + to have done work sufficiently notable to be recognized by several prizes + and a gold medal. + </p> + <p> + Of his life after the completion of his medical course, of his search for + work, of his appointment as assistant surgeon on board the Rattlesnake, + and of his scientific work during the four years' cruise, Huxley gives a + vivid description in the autobiography. As a result of his investigations + on this voyage, he published various essays which quickly secured for him + a position in the scientific world as a naturalist of the first rank. A + testimony of the value of this work was his election to membership in the + Royal Society. + </p> + <p> + Although Huxley had now, at the age of twenty-six, won distinction in + science, he soon discovered that it was not so easy to earn bread thereby. + Nevertheless, to earn a living was most important if he were to accomplish + the two objects which he had in view. He wished, in the first place, to + marry Miss Henrietta Heathorn of Sydney, to whom he had become engaged + when on the cruise with the Rattlesnake; his second object was to follow + science as a profession. The struggle to find something connected with + science which would pay was long and bitter; and only a resolute + determination to win kept Huxley from abandoning it altogether. Uniform + ill-luck met him everywhere. He has told in his autobiography of his + troubles with the Admiralty in the endeavor to get his papers published, + and of his failure there. He applied for a position to teach science in + Toronto; being unsuccessful in this attempt, he applied successively for + various professorships in the United Kingdom, and in this he was likewise + unsuccessful. Some of his friends urged him to hold out, but others + thought the fight an unequal one, and advised him to emigrate to + Australia. He himself was tempted to practice medicine in Sydney; but to + give up his purpose seemed to him like cowardice. On the other hand, to + prolong the struggle indefinitely when he might quickly earn a living in + other ways seemed like selfishness and an injustice to the woman to whom + he had been for a long time engaged. Miss Heathorn, however, upheld him in + his determination to pursue science; and his sister also, he writes, + cheered him by her advice and encouragement to persist in the struggle. + Something of the man's heroic temper may be gathered from a letter which + he wrote to Miss Heathorn when his affairs were darkest. "However painful + our separation may be," he says, "the spectacle of a man who had given up + the cherished purpose of his life . . . would, before long years were over + our heads, be infinitely more painful." He declares that he is hemmed in + by all sorts of difficulties. "Nevertheless the path has shown itself a + fair one, neither more difficult nor less so than most paths in life in + which a man of energy may hope to do much if he believes in himself, and + is at peace within." Thus relieved in mind, he makes his decision in spite + of adverse fate. "My course of life is taken, I will not leave London—I + WILL make myself a name and a position as well as an income by some kind + of pursuit connected with science which is the thing for which Nature has + fitted me if she has ever fitted any one for anything." + </p> + <p> + But suddenly the long wait, the faith in self, were justified, and the + turning point came. "There is always a Cape Horn in one's life that one + either weathers or wrecks one's self on," he writes to his sister. "Thank + God, I think I may say I have weathered mine—not without a good deal + of damage to spars and rigging though, for it blew deuced hard on the + other side." In 1854 a permanent lectureship was offered him at the + Government School of Mines; also, a lectureship at St. Thomas' Hospital; + and he was asked to give various other lecture courses. He thus found + himself able to establish the home for which he had waited eight years. In + July, 1855, he was married to Miss Heathorn. + </p> + <p> + The succeeding years from 1855 to 1860 were filled with various kinds of + work connected with science: original investigation, printing of + monographs, and establishing of natural history museums. His advice + concerning local museums is interesting and characteristically expressed. + "It [the local museum if properly arranged] will tell both natives and + strangers exactly what they want to know, and possess great scientific + interest and importance. Whereas the ordinary lumber-room of clubs from + New Zealand, Hindu idols, sharks' teeth, mangy monkeys, scorpions, and + conch shells—who shall describe the weary inutility of it? It is + really worse than nothing, because it leads the unwary to look for objects + of science elsewhere than under their noses. What they want to know is + that their 'America is here,' as Wilhelm Meister has it." During this + period, also, he began his lectures to workingmen, calling them Peoples' + Lectures. "POPULAR lectures," he said, "I hold to be an abomination unto + the Lord." Working-men attended these lectures in great numbers, and to + them Huxley seemed to be always able to speak at his best. His purpose in + giving these lectures should be expressed in his own words: "I want the + working class to understand that Science and her ways are great facts for + them—that physical virtue is the base of all other, and that they + are to be clean and temperate and all the rest—not because fellows + in black and white ties tell them so, but because there are plain and + patent laws which they must obey 'under penalties.'" + </p> + <p> + Toward the close of 1859, Darwin's "Origin of Species" was published. It + raised a great outcry in England; and Huxley immediately came forward as + chief defender of the faith therein set forth. He took part in debates on + this subject, the most famous of which was the one between himself and + Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford. The Bishop concluded his speech by turning + to Huxley and asking, "Was it through his grandfather or grandmother that + he claimed descent from a monkey?" Huxley, as is reported by an + eye-witness, "slowly and deliberately arose. A slight tall figure, stern + and pale, very quiet and grave, he stood before us and spoke those + tremendous words. . . . He was not ashamed to have a monkey for an + ancestor; but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used + great gifts to obscure the truth." Another story indicates the temper of + that time. Carlyle, whose writing had strongly influenced Huxley, and whom + Huxley had come to know, could not forgive him for his attitude toward + evolution. One day, years after the publication of Man's Place in Nature, + Huxley, seeing Carlyle on the other side of the street, a broken, pathetic + figure, walked over and spoke to him. The old man merely remarked, "You're + Huxley, aren't you? the man that says we are all descended from monkeys," + and passed on. Huxley, however, saw nothing degrading to man's dignity in + the theory of evolution. In a wonderfully fine sentence he gives his own + estimate of the theory as it affects man's future on earth. "Thoughtful + men once escaped from the blinding influences of traditional prejudices, + will find in the lowly stock whence man has sprung the best evidence of + the splendour of his capacities; and will discover, in his long progress + through the past, a reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a + nobler future." As a result of all these controversies on The Origin of + Species and of investigations to uphold Darwin's theory, Huxley wrote his + first book, already mentioned, Man's Place in Nature. + </p> + <p> + To read a list of the various kinds of work which Huxley was doing from + 1870 to 1875 is to be convinced of his abundant energy and many interests. + At about this time Huxley executed the plan which he had had in mind for a + long time, the establishment of laboratories for the use of students. His + object was to furnish a more exact preliminary training. He complains that + the student who enters the medical school is "so habituated to learn only + from books, or oral teaching, that the attempt to learn from things and to + get his knowledge at first hand is something new and strange." To make + this method of teaching successful in the schools, Huxley gave practical + instruction in laboratory work to school-masters. + </p> + <p> + "If I am to be remembered at all," Huxley once wrote, "I would rather it + should be as a man who did his best to help the people than by any other + title." Certainly as much of his time as could be spared from his regular + work was given to help others. His lectures to workingmen and + school-masters have already been mentioned. In addition, he lectured to + women on physiology and to children on elementary science. In order to be + of greater service to the children, Huxley, in spite of delicate health, + became a member of the London School Board. His immediate object was "to + temper book-learning with something of the direct knowledge of Nature." + His other purposes were to secure a better physical training for children + and to give them a clearer understanding of social and moral law. He did + not believe, on the one hand, in overcrowding the curriculum, but, on the + other hand, he "felt that all education should be thrown open to all that + each man might know to what state in life he was called." Another + statement of his purpose and beliefs is given by Professor Gladstone, who + says of his work on the board: "He resented the idea that schools were to + train either congregations for churches or hands for factories. He was on + the Board as a friend of children. What he sought to do for the child was + for the child's sake, that it might live a fuller, truer, worthier life." + </p> + <p> + The immense amount of work which Huxley did in these years told very + seriously on his naturally weak constitution. It became necessary for him + finally for two successive years to stop work altogether. In 1872 he went + to the Mediterranean and to Egypt. This was a holiday full of interest for + a man like Huxley who looked upon the history of the world and man's place + in the world with a keen scientific mind. Added to this scientific bent of + mind, moreover, Huxley had a deep appreciation for the picturesque in + nature and life. Bits of description indicate his enjoyment in this + vacation. He writes of his entrance to the Mediterranean, "It was a lovely + morning, and nothing could be grander than Ape Hill on one side and the + Rock on the other, looking like great lions or sphinxes on each side of a + gateway." In Cairo, Huxley found much to interest him in archaeology, + geology, and the every-day life of the streets. At the end of a month, he + writes that he is very well and very grateful to Old Nile for all that he + has done for him, not the least "for a whole universe of new thoughts and + pictures of life." The trip, however, did no lasting good. In 1873 Huxley + was again very ill, but was under such heavy costs at this time that + another vacation was impossible. At this moment, a critical one in his + life, some of his close scientific friends placed to his credit twenty-one + hundred pounds to enable him to take the much needed rest. Darwin wrote to + Huxley concerning the gift: "In doing this we are convinced that we act + for the public interest." He assured Huxley that the friends who gave this + felt toward him as a brother. "I am sure that you will return this feeling + and will therefore be glad to give us the opportunity of aiding you in + some degree, as this will be a happiness to us to the last day of our + lives." The gift made it possible for Huxley to take another long + vacation, part of which was spent with Sir Joseph Hooker, a noted English + botanist, visiting the volcanoes of Auvergne. After this trip he steadily + improved in health, with no other serious illness for ten years. + </p> + <p> + In 1876 Huxley was invited to visit America and to deliver the inaugural + address at Johns Hopkins University. In July of this year accordingly, in + company with his wife, he crossed to New York. Everywhere Huxley was + received with enthusiasm, for his name was a very familiar one. Two + quotations from his address at Johns Hopkins are especially worthy of + attention as a part of his message to Americans. "It has been my fate to + see great educational funds fossilise into mere bricks and mortar in the + petrifying springs of architecture, with nothing left to work them. A + great warrior is said to have made a desert and called it peace. Trustees + have sometimes made a palace and called it a university." + </p> + <p> + The second quotation is as follows:— + </p> + <p> + I cannot say that I am in the slightest degree impressed by your bigness + or your material resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, territory does + not make a nation. The great issue, about which hangs true sublimity, and + the terror of overhanging fate, is, what are you going to do with all + these things? . . . + </p> + <p> + The one condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral worth and + intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot give + these, but it can cherish them and bring them to the front in whatever + station of society they are to be found, and the universities ought to be, + and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the nation. + </p> + <p> + After the return from America, the same innumerable occupations were + continued. It would be impossible in short space even to enumerate all + Huxley's various publications of the next ten years. His work, however, + changed gradually from scientific investigation to administrative work, + not the least important of which was the office of Inspector of Fisheries. + A second important office was the Presidency of the Royal Society. Of the + work of this society Sir Joseph Hooker writes: "The duties of the office + are manifold and heavy; they include attendance at all the meetings of the + Fellows, and of the councils, committees, and sub-committees of the + Society, and especially the supervision of the printing and illustrating + all papers on biological subjects that are published in the Society's + Transactions and Proceedings; the latter often involving a protracted + correspondence with the authors. To this must be added a share in the + supervision of the staff officers, of the library and correspondence, and + the details of house-keeping." All the work connected with this and many + other offices bespeaks a life too hard-driven and accounts fully for the + continued ill-health which finally resulted in a complete break-down. + </p> + <p> + Huxley had always advocated that the age of sixty was the time for + "official death," and had looked forward to a peaceful "Indian summer." + With this object in mind and troubled by increasing ill-health, he began + in 1885 to give up his work. But to live even in comparative idleness, + after so many years of activity, was difficult. "I am sure," he says, + "that the habit of incessant work into which we all drift is as bad in its + way as dram-drinking. In time you cannot be comfortable without stimulus." + But continued bodily weakness told upon him to the extent that all work + became distasteful. An utter weariness with frequent spells of the blues + took possession of him; and the story of his life for some years is the + story of the long pursuit of health in England, Switzerland, and + especially in Italy. + </p> + <p> + Although Huxley was wretchedly ill during this period, he wrote letters + which are good to read for their humor and for their pictures of foreign + cities. Rome he writes of as an idle, afternoony sort of place from which + it is difficult to depart. He worked as eagerly over the historic remains + in Rome as he would over a collection of geological specimens. "I begin to + understand Old Rome pretty well and I am quite learned in the Catacombs, + which suit me, as a kind of Christian fossils out of which one can + reconstruct the body of the primitive Church." Florence, for a man with a + conscience and ill-health, had too many picture galleries. "They are a + sore burden to the conscience if you don't go to see them, and an awful + trial to the back and legs if you do," he complained. He found Florence, + nevertheless, a lovely place and full of most interesting things to see + and do. His letters with reference to himself also are vigorously and + entertainingly expressed. He writes in a characteristic way of his growing + difficulty with his hearing. "It irritates me not to hear; it irritates me + still more to be spoken to as if I were deaf, and the absurdity of being + irritated on the last ground irritates me still more." And again he writes + in a more hopeful strain, "With fresh air and exercise and careful + avoidance of cold and night air I am to be all right again." He then adds: + "I am not fond of coddling; but as Paddy gave his pig the best corner in + his cabin—because 'shure, he paid the rint'—I feel bound to + take care of myself as a household animal of value, to say nothing of + other points." + </p> + <p> + Although he was never strong after this long illness, Huxley began in 1889 + to be much better. The first sign of returning vigor was the eagerness + with which he entered into a controversy with Gladstone. Huxley had always + enjoyed a mental battle; and some of his fiercest tilts were with + Gladstone. He even found the cause of better health in this controversy, + and was grateful to the "Grand Old Man" for making home happy for him. + From this time to his death, Huxley wrote a number of articles on + politics, science, and religion, many of which were published in the + volume called Controverted Questions. The main value of these essays lies + in the fact that Huxley calls upon men to give clear reasons for the faith + which they claim as theirs, and makes, as a friend wrote of him, hazy + thinking and slovenly, half-formed conclusions seem the base thing they + really are. + </p> + <p> + The last years of Huxley's life were indeed the longed-for Indian summer. + Away from the noise of London at Eastbourne by the sea, he spent many + happy hours with old-time friends and in his garden, which was a great joy + to him. His large family of sons and daughters and grandchildren brought + much cheer to his last days. Almost to the end he was working and writing + for publication. Three days before his death he wrote to his old friend, + Hooker, that he didn't feel at all like "sending in his checks" and hoped + to recover. He died very quietly on June 29, 1895. That he met death with + the same calm faith and strength with which he had met life is indicated + by the lines which his wife wrote and which he requested to be his + epitaph:— + </p> + <p> + Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep; For still He giveth His + beloved sleep, And if an endless sleep He wills, so best. + </p> + <p> + To attempt an analysis of Huxley's character, unique and bafflingly + complex as it is, is beyond the scope of this sketch; but to give only the + mere facts of his life is to do an injustice to the vivid personality of + the man as it is revealed in his letters. All his human interest in people + and things—pets, and flowers, and family—brightens many pages + of the two ponderous volumes. Now one reads of his grief over some + backward-going plant, or over some garden tragedy, as "A lovely clematis + in full flower, which I had spent hours in nailing up, has just died + suddenly. I am more inconsolable than Jonah!" Now one is amused with a + nonsense letter to one of his children, and again with an account of a + pet. "I wish you would write seriously to M——. She is not + behaving well to Oliver. I have seen handsomer kittens, but few more + lively, and energetically destructive. Just now he scratched away at + something M—— says cost 13s. 6d. a yard and reduced more or + less of it to combings. M—— therefore excludes him from the + dining-room and all those opportunities of higher education which he would + have in MY house." Frequently one finds a description of some event, so + vividly done that the mere reading of it seems like a real experience. An + account of Tennyson's burial in Westminster is a typical bit of + description:— + </p> + <p> + Bright sunshine streamed through the windows of the nave, while the choir + was in half gloom, and as each shaft of light illuminated the + flower-covered bier as it slowly travelled on, one thought of the bright + succession of his works between the darkness before and the darkness + after. I am glad to say that the Royal Society was represented by four of + its chief officers, and nine of the commonalty, including myself. Tennyson + has a right to that, as the first poet since Lucretius who has understood + the drift of science. + </p> + <p> + No parts of the Life and Letters are more enjoyable than those concerning + the "Happy Family," as a friend of Huxley's names his household. His + family of seven children found their father a most engaging friend and + companion. He could tell them wonderful sea stories and animal stories and + could draw fascinating pictures. His son writes of how when he was ill + with scarlet fever he used to look forward to his father's home-coming. + "The solitary days—for I was the first victim in the family—were + very long, and I looked forward with intense interest to one half-hour + after dinner, when he would come up and draw scenes from the history of a + remarkable bull-terrier and his family that went to the seaside in a most + human and child-delighting manner. I have seldom suffered a greater + disappointment than when, one evening, I fell asleep just before this + fairy half-hour, and lost it out of my life." + </p> + <p> + The account of the comradeship between Huxley and his wife reads like a + good old-time romance. He was attracted to her at first by her "simplicity + and directness united with an unusual degree of cultivation," Huxley's son + writes. On her he depended for advice in his work, and for companionship + at home and abroad when wandering in search of health in Italy and + Switzerland. When he had been separated from her for some time, he wrote, + "Nobody, children or anyone else, can be to me what you are. Ulysses + preferred his old woman to immortality, and this absence has led me to see + that he was as wise in that as in other things." Again he writes, "Against + all trouble (and I have had my share) I weigh a wife-comrade 'trew and + fest' in all emergencies." + </p> + <p> + The letters also give one a clear idea of the breadth of Huxley's + interests, particularly of his appreciation of the various forms of art. + Huxley believed strongly in the arts as a refining and helpful influence + in education. He keenly enjoyed good music. Professor Hewes writes of him + that one breaking in upon him in the afternoon at South Kensington would + not infrequently be met "with a snatch of some melody of Bach's fugue." He + also liked good pictures, and always had among his friends well-known + artists, as Alma-Tadema, Sir Frederick Leighton, and Burne-Jones. He read + poetry widely, and strongly advocated the teaching of poetry in English + schools. As to poetry, his own preferences are interesting. Wordsworth he + considered too discursive; Shelley was too diffuse; Keats, he liked for + pure beauty, Browning for strength, and Tennyson for his understanding of + modern science; but most frequently of all he read Milton and Shakespeare. + </p> + <p> + As to Huxley's appearance, and as to the impression which his personality + made upon others, the description of a friend, Mr. G. W. Smalley, presents + him with striking force. "The square forehead, the square jaw, the tense + lines of the mouth, the deep flashing dark eyes, the impression of + something more than strength he gave you, an impression of sincerity, of + solid force, of immovability, yet with the gentleness arising from the + serene consciousness of his strength—all this belonged to Huxley and + to him alone. The first glance magnetized his audience. The eyes were + those of one accustomed to command, of one having authority, and not + fearing on occasion to use it. The hair swept carelessly away from the + broad forehead and grew rather long behind, yet the length did not + suggest, as it often does, effeminacy. He was masculine in everything—look, + gesture, speech. Sparing of gesture, sparing of emphasis, careless of mere + rhetorical or oratorical art, he had nevertheless the secret of the + highest art of all, whether in oratory or whatever else—he had + simplicity." + </p> + <p> + Simplicity, directness, sincerity,—all these qualities describe + Huxley; but the one attribute which distinguishes him above all others is + love of truth. A love of truth, as the phrase characterizes Huxley, would + necessarily produce a scholarly habit of mind. It was the zealous search + for truth which determined his method of work. In science, Huxley would + "take at second hand nothing for which he vouched in teaching." Some one + reproached him for wasting time verifying what another had already done. + "If that is his practice," he commented, "his work will never live." The + same motive made him a master of languages. To be able to read at first + hand the writings of other nations, he learned German, French, Italian, + and Greek. One of the chief reasons for learning to read Greek was to see + for himself if Aristotle really did say that the heart had only three + chambers—an error, he discovered, not of Aristotle, but of the + translator. It was, moreover, the scholar in Huxley which made him + impatient of narrow, half-formed, foggy conclusions. His own work has all + the breadth and freedom and universality of the scholar, but it has, also, + a quality equally distinctive of the scholar, namely, an infinite + precision in the matter of detail. + </p> + <p> + If love of truth made Huxley a scholar, it made him, also, a courageous + fighter. Man's first duty, as he saw it, was to seek the truth; his second + was to teach it to others, and, if necessary, to contend valiantly for it. + To fail to teach what you honestly know to be true, because it may harm + your reputation, or even because it may give pain to others, is cowardice. + "I am not greatly concerned about any reputation," Huxley writes to his + wife, "except that of being entirely honest and straightforward." + Regardless of warnings that the publication of Man's Place in Nature would + ruin his career, Huxley passed on to others what nature had revealed to + him. He was regardless, also, of the confusion and pain which his view + would necessarily bring to those who had been nourished in old traditions. + To stand with a man or two and to do battle with the world on the score of + its old beliefs, has never been an easy task since the world began. + Certainly it required fearlessness and determination to wrestle with the + prejudices against science in the middle of the nineteenth century—how + much may be gathered from the reading of Darwin's Life and Letters. The + attitude of the times toward science has already been indicated. One may + be allowed to give one more example from the reported address of a + clergyman. "O ye men of science, ye men of science, leave us our ancestors + in paradise, and you may have yours in Zoological gardens." The war was, + for the most part, between the clergy and the men of science, but it is + necessary to remember that Huxley fought not against Christianity, but + against dogma; that he fought not against the past,—he had great + reverence for the accomplishment of the past,—but against + unwillingness to accept the new truth of the present. + </p> + <p> + A scholar of the highest type and a fearless defender of true and honest + thinking, Huxley certainly was: but the quality which gives meaning to his + work, which makes it live, is a certain human quality due to the fact that + Huxley was always keenly alive to the relation of science to the problems + of life. For this reason, he was not content with the mere acquirement of + knowledge; and for this reason, also, he could not quietly wait until the + world should come to his way of thinking. Much of the time, therefore, + which he would otherwise naturally have spent in research, he spent in + contending for and in endeavoring to popularize the facts of science. It + was this desire to make his ideas prevail that led Huxley to work for a + mastery of the technique of speaking and writing. He hated both, but + taught himself to do both well. The end of all his infinite pains about + his writing was not because style for its own sake is worth while, but + because he saw that the only way to win men to a consideration of his + message was to make it perfectly clear and attractive to them. Huxley's + message to the people was that happiness, usefulness, and even material + prosperity depend upon an understanding of the laws of nature. He also + taught that a knowledge of the facts of science is the soundest basis for + moral law; that a clear sense of the penalties which Nature inflicts for + disobedience of her laws must eventually be the greatest force for the + purification of life. If he was to be remembered, therefore, he desired + that he should be remembered primarily as one who had helped the people + "to think truly and to live rightly." Huxley's writing is, then, something + more than a scholarly exposition of abstruse matter; for it has been + further devoted to the increasing of man's capacity for usefulness, and to + the betterment of his life here on earth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II — SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + </h2> + <p> + From the point of view of subject-matter, structure, and style, Huxley's + essays are admirably adapted to the uses of the student in English. The + themes of the essays are two, education and science. In these two subjects + Huxley earnestly sought to arouse interest and to impart knowledge, + because he believed that intelligence in these matters is essential for + the advancement of the race in strength and morality. Both subjects, + therefore, should be valuable to the student. In education, certainly, he + should be interested, since it is his main occupation, if not his chief + concern. Essays like A Liberal Education and The Principal Subjects of + Education may suggest to him the meaning of all his work, and may suggest, + also, the things which it would be well for him to know; and, even more, a + consideration of these subjects may arouse him to a greater interest and + responsibility than he usually assumes toward his own mental equipment. Of + greater interest probably will be the subjects which deal with nature; for + the ways of nature are more nearly within the range of his real concerns + than are the wherefores of study. The story of the formation of a piece of + chalk, the substance which lies at the basis of all life, the habits of + sea animals, are all subjects the nature of which is akin to his own eager + interest in the world. + </p> + <p> + Undoubtedly the subjects about which Huxley writes will "appeal" to the + student; but it is in analysis that the real discipline lies. For analysis + Huxley's essays are excellent. They illustrate "the clear power of + exposition," and such power is, as Huxley wrote to Tyndall, the one + quality the people want,—exposition "so clear that they may think + they understand even if they don't." Huxley obtains that perfect clearness + in his own work by simple definition, by keeping steadily before his + audience his intention, and by making plain throughout his lecture a + well-defined organic structure. No X-ray machine is needful to make the + skeleton visible; it stands forth with the parts all nicely related and + compactly joined. In reference to structure, his son and biographer + writes, "He loved to visualize his object clearly. The framework of what + he wished to say would always be drawn out first." Professor Ray Lankester + also mentions Huxley's love of form. "He deals with form not only as a + mechanical engineer IN PARTIBUS (Huxley's own description of himself), but + also as an artist, a born lover of form, a character which others + recognize in him though he does not himself set it down in his analysis." + Huxley's own account of his efforts to shape his work is suggestive. "The + fact is that I have a great love and respect for my native tongue, and + take great pains to use it properly. Sometimes I write essays half-a-dozen + times before I can get them into proper shape; and I believe I become more + fastidious as I grow older." And, indeed, there is a marked difference in + firmness of structure between the earlier essays, such as On the + Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences, written, as Huxley + acknowledges, in great haste, and the later essays, such as A Liberal + Education and The Method of Scientific Investigation. To trace and to + define this difference will be most helpful to the student who is building + up a knowledge of structure for his own use. + </p> + <p> + According to Huxley's biographer in the Life and Letters of Thomas Henry + Huxley, the essays which represent him at his best are those published in + 1868. They are A Piece of Chalk, A Liberal Education, and On the Physical + Basis of Life. In connection with the comment on these essays is the + following quotation which gives one interesting information as to Huxley's + method of obtaining a clear style:— + </p> + <p> + This lecture on A Piece of Chalk together with two others delivered this + year, seems to me to mark the maturing of his style into that mastery of + clear expression for which he deliberately labored, the saying exactly + what he meant, neither too much nor too little, without confusion and + without obscurity. Have something to say, and say it, was the Duke of + Wellington's theory of style; Huxley's was to say that which has to be + said in such language that you can stand cross-examination on each word. + Be clear, though you may be convicted of error. If you are clearly wrong, + you will run up against a fact sometime and get set right. If you shuffle + with your subject, and study chiefly to use language which will give a + loophole of escape either way, there is no hope for you. + </p> + <p> + This was the secret of his lucidity. In no one could Buffon's aphorism on + style find a better illustration, Le style c'est l'homme meme. In him + science and literature, too often divorced, were closely united; and + literature owes him a debt for importing into it so much of the highest + scientific habit of mind; for showing that truthfulness need not be bald, + and that real power lies more in exact accuracy than in luxuriance of + diction. + </p> + <p> + Huxley's own theory as to how clearness is to be obtained gets at the root + of the matter. "For my part, I venture to doubt the wisdom of attempting + to mould one's style by any other process than that of striving after the + clear and forcible expression of definite conceptions; in which process + the Glassian precept, first catch your definite conception, is probably + the most difficult to obey." + </p> + <p> + Perfect clearness, above every other quality of style, certainly is + characteristic of Huxley; but clearness alone does not make subject-matter + literature. In addition to this quality, Huxley's writing wins the reader + by the racy diction, the homely illustration, the plain, honest phrasing. + All these and other qualities bring one into an intimate relationship with + his subject. A man of vast technical learning, he is still so interested + in the relation of his facts to the problems of men that he is always able + to infuse life into the driest of subjects, in other words, to HUMANIZE + his knowledge; and in the estimation of Matthew Arnold, this is the true + work of the scholar, the highest mission of style. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III — SUGGESTED STUDIES IN SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + </h2> + <p> + Although fully realizing that the questions here given are only such as + are generally used everywhere by instructors in English, the editor has, + nevertheless, included them with the hope that some one may find them + helpful. + </p> + <p> + The studies given include a few general questions and suggestions on + subject-matter, structure, and style. The questions on structure are based + on an analysis of the whole composition and of the paragraph; those on + style are based on a study of sentences and words. Such a division of + material may seem unwarranted; for, it may be urged, firmness of structure + depends, to a certain extent, upon sentence-form and words; and clearness + of style, to a large extent, upon the form of the paragraph and whole + composition. The two, certainly, cannot be in justice separated; and + especially is it true, more deeply true than the average student can be + brought to believe, that structure, "MIND, in style" as Pater phrases it, + primarily determines not only clearness, but also such qualities of style + as reserve, refinement, and simple Doric beauty. Since, however, structure + is more obviously associated with the larger groups, and style with the + smaller, the questions have been arranged according to this division. + </p> + <p> + I. Suggestions for the Study of Subject-Matter. + </p> + <p> + 1. To whom does Huxley address the essay? + </p> + <p> + 2. Can you see any adaptation of his material to his audience? + </p> + <p> + 3. How would A Piece of Chalk be differently presented if given before a + science club? + </p> + <p> + 4. Does Huxley make his subject interesting? If so, how does he accomplish + this? + </p> + <p> + 5. Is the personality of Huxley suggested by the essays? See Life and + Letters, vol. ii, p. 293. + </p> + <p> + II. Suggestions for the Study of Structure. + </p> + <p> + A. Analysis of the whole composition. + </p> + <p> + 1. State in one complete sentence the theme of the essay. + </p> + <p> + 2. Analyze the essay for the logical development of the thought. + </p> + <p> + a. Questions on the Introduction. + </p> + <p> + In the introduction, how does the author approach his material? + </p> + <p> + Does he give the main points of the essay? + </p> + <p> + Does he give his reasons for writing? + </p> + <p> + Does he narrow his subject to one point of view? + </p> + <p> + Is the introduction a digression? + </p> + <p> + b. Questions on the Body. + </p> + <p> + Can you find large groups of thought? + </p> + <p> + Are these groups closely related to the theme and to each other? + </p> + <p> + Do you find any digressions? + </p> + <p> + Is the method used in developing the groups inductive or deductive? + </p> + <p> + Is the method different in different groups? + </p> + <p> + Are the groups arranged for good emphasis in the whole composition? + </p> + <p> + c. Questions on the Conclusion. + </p> + <p> + How does the author conclude the essay? + </p> + <p> + Does the conclusion sum up the points of the essay? + </p> + <p> + Are any new points suggested? + </p> + <p> + Is the thought of the whole essay stated? + </p> + <p> + Do you consider it a strong conclusion? + </p> + <p> + 3. Make out an outline which shall picture the skeleton of the essay + studied. In making the outline express the topics in the form of complete + statements, phrase the thought for clear sequence, and be careful about + such matters as spacing and punctuation. + </p> + <p> + B. Analysis of paragraph structure. + </p> + <p> + 1. Can a paragraph be analyzed in the same manner as the whole + composition? + </p> + <p> + 2. Can you express the thought of each paragraph in a complete sentence? + </p> + <p> + 3. Can you find different points presented in the paragraph developing the + paragraph topic, as the large groups of the whole composition develop the + theme? + </p> + <p> + 4. Are the paragraphs closely related, and how are they bound together? + </p> + <p> + 5. Can any of the paragraphs be combined to advantage? + </p> + <p> + 6. Read from Barrett Wendell's English Composition the chapter on + paragraphs. Are Huxley's paragraphs constructed in accordance with the + principles given in this chapter? + </p> + <p> + 7. Is the paragraph type varied? For paragraph types, see Scott and + Denny's Paragraph Writing. + </p> + <p> + C. Comparative study of the structure of the essay. + </p> + <p> + 1. Do you find any difference between Huxley's earlier and later essays as + regards the structure of the whole, or the structure of the paragraph? + </p> + <p> + 2. Which essay seems to you to be most successful in structure? + </p> + <p> + 3. Has the character of the audience any influence upon the structure of + the essays? + </p> + <p> + 4. Compare the structure of one of Huxley's essays with that of some other + essay recently studied. + </p> + <p> + 5. Has the nature of the material any influence upon the structure of the + essay? + </p> + <p> + III. Suggestions for the Study of Style. + </p> + <p> + A. Exactly what do you mean by style? + </p> + <p> + B. Questions on sentence structure. + </p> + <p> + 1. From any given essay, group together sentences which are long, short, + loose, periodic, balanced, simple, compound; note those peculiar, for any + reason, to Huxley. + </p> + <p> + 2. Stevenson says, "The one rule is to be infinitely various; to interest, + to disappoint, to surprise and still to gratify; to be ever changing, as + it were, the stitch, and yet still to give the effect of ingenious + neatness." + </p> + <p> + Do Huxley's sentences conform to Stevenson's rule? Compare Huxley's + sentences with Stevenson's for variety in form. Is there any reason for + the difference between the form of the two writers? + </p> + <p> + 3. Does this quotation from Pater's essay on Style describe Huxley's + sentences? "The blithe, crisp sentence, decisive as a child's expression + of its needs, may alternate with the long-contending, victoriously + intricate sentence; the sentence, born with the integrity of a single + word, relieving the sort of sentence in which, if you look closely, you + can see contrivance, much adjustment, to bring a highly qualified matter + into compass at one view." + </p> + <p> + 4. How do Huxley's sentences compare with those of Ruskin, or with those + of any author recently studied? + </p> + <p> + 5. Are Huxley's sentences musical? How does an author make his sentences + musical? + </p> + <p> + C. Questions on words. + </p> + <p> + 1. Do you find evidence of exactness, a quality which Huxley said he + labored for? + </p> + <p> + 2. Are the words general or specific in character? + </p> + <p> + 3. How does Huxley make his subject-matter attractive? + </p> + <p> + 4. From what sources does Huxley derive his words? Are they every-day + words, or more scholarly in character? + </p> + <p> + 5. Do you find any figures? Are these mainly ornamental or do they + re-enforce the thought? + </p> + <p> + 8. Are there many allusions and quotations? Can you easily recognize the + source? + </p> + <p> + 7. Pater says in his essay on Style that the literary artist "begets a + vocabulary faithful to the colouring of his own spirit, and in the + strictest sense original." Do you find that Huxley's vocabulary suggests + the man? + </p> + <p> + 8. Does Huxley seem to search for "the smooth, or winsome, or forcible + word, as such, or quite simply and honestly, for the word's adjustment to + its meaning"? + </p> + <p> + 9. Make out a list of the words and proper names in any given essay which + are not familiar to you; write out the explanation of these in the form of + notes giving any information which is interesting and relevant. + </p> + <p> + D. General questions on style. + </p> + <p> + 1. How is Huxley's style adapted to the subject-matter? + </p> + <p> + 2. Can you explain the difference in style of the different essays by the + difference in purpose? + </p> + <p> + 3. Compare Huxley's way of saying things with some other author's way of + saying things. + </p> + <p> + 4. Huxley says of his essays to workingmen, "I only wish I had had the + sense to anticipate the run these have had here and abroad, and I would + have revised them properly. As they stand they are terribly in the rough, + from a literary point of view." + </p> + <p> + Do you find evidences of roughness? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY — AUTOBIOGRAPHY <a href="#linknote-1" + name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + And when I consider, in one view, the many things . . . which I have upon + my hands, I feel the burlesque of being employed in this manner at my time + of life. But, in another view, and taking in all circumstances, these + things, as trifling as they may appear, no less than things of greater + importance, seem to be put upon me to do.—Bishop Butler to the + Duchess of Somerset. + </p> + <p> + The "many things" to which the Duchess's correspondent here refers are the + repairs and improvements of the episcopal seat at Auckland. I doubt if the + great apologist, greater in nothing than in the simple dignity of his + character, would have considered the writing an account of himself as a + thing which could be put upon him to do whatever circumstances might be + taken in. But the good bishop lived in an age when a man might write books + and yet be permitted to keep his private existence to himself; in the + pre-Boswellian <a href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2" + id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> epoch, when the germ of the + photographer lay concealed in the distant future, and the interviewer who + pervades our age was an unforeseen, indeed unimaginable, birth of time. + </p> + <p> + At present, the most convinced believer in the aphorism "Bene qui latuit, + bene vixit,"<a href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3" id="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a> + is not always able to act up to it. An importunate person informs him that + his portrait is about to be published and will be accompanied by a + biography which the importunate person proposes to write. The sufferer + knows what that means; either he undertakes to revise the "biography" or + he does not. In the former case, he makes himself responsible; in the + latter, he allows the publication of a mass of more or less fulsome + inaccuracies for which he will be held responsible by those who are + familiar with the prevalent art of self-advertisement. On the whole, it + may be better to get over the "burlesque of being employed in this manner" + and do the thing himself. + </p> + <p> + It was by reflections of this kind that, some years ago, I was led to + write and permit the publication of the subjoined sketch. + </p> + <p> + I was born about eight o'clock in the morning on the 4th of May, 1825, at + Ealing, which was, at that time, as quiet a little country village as + could be found within a half-a-dozen miles of Hyde Park Corner. Now it is + a suburb of London with, I believe, 30,000 inhabitants. My father was one + of the masters in a large semi-public school which at one time had a high + reputation. I am not aware that any portents preceded my arrival in this + world, but, in my childhood, I remember hearing a traditional account of + the manner in which I lost the chance of an endowment of great practical + value. The windows of my mother's room were open, in consequence of the + unusual warmth of the weather. For the same reason, probably, a + neighbouring beehive had swarmed, and the new colony, pitching on the + window-sill, was making its way into the room when the horrified nurse + shut down the sash. If that well-meaning woman had only abstained from her + ill-timed interference, the swarm might have settled on my lips, and I + should have been endowed with that mellifluous eloquence which, in this + country, leads far more surely than worth, capacity, or honest work, to + the highest places in Church and State. But the opportunity was lost, and + I have been obliged to content myself through life with saying what I mean + in the plainest of plain language, than which, I suppose, there is no + habit more ruinous to a man's prospects of advancement. + </p> + <p> + Why I was christened Thomas Henry I do not know; but it is a curious + chance that my parents should have fixed for my usual denomination upon + the name of that particular Apostle with whom I have always felt most + sympathy. Physically and mentally I am the son of my mother so completely—even + down to peculiar movements of the hands, which made their appearance in me + as I reached the age she had when I noticed them—that I can hardly + find any trace of my father in myself, except an inborn faculty for + drawing, which unfortunately, in my case, has never been cultivated, a hot + temper, and that amount of tenacity of purpose which unfriendly observers + sometimes call obstinacy. + </p> + <p> + My mother was a slender brunette, of an emotional and energetic + temperament, and possessed of the most piercing black eyes I ever saw in a + woman's head. With no more education than other women of the middle + classes in her day, she had an excellent mental capacity. Her most + distinguishing characteristic, however, was rapidity of thought. If one + ventured to suggest she had not taken much time to arrive at any + conclusion, she would say, "I cannot help it, things flash across me." + That peculiarity has been passed on to me in full strength; it has often + stood me in good stead; it has sometimes played me sad tricks, and it has + always been a danger. But, after all, if my time were to come over again, + there is nothing I would less willingly part with than my inheritance of + mother wit. + </p> + <p> + I have next to nothing to say about my childhood. In later years my + mother, looking at me almost reproachfully, would sometimes say, "Ah! you + were such a pretty boy!" whence I had no difficulty in concluding that I + had not fulfilled my early promise in the matter of looks. In fact, I have + a distinct recollection of certain curls of which I was vain, and of a + conviction that I closely resembled that handsome, courtly gentleman, Sir + Herbert Oakley, who was vicar of our parish, and who was as a god to us + country folk, because he was occasionally visited by the then Prince + George of Cambridge. <a href="#linknote-4" name="linknoteref-4" + id="linknoteref-4"><small>4</small></a> I remember turning my pinafore + wrong side forwards in order to represent a surplice, and preaching to my + mother's maids in the kitchen as nearly as possible in Sir Herbert's + manner one Sunday morning when the rest of the family were at church. That + is the earliest indication I can call to mind of the strong clerical + affinities which my friend Mr. Herbert Spencer <a href="#linknote-5" + name="linknoteref-5" id="linknoteref-5"><small>5</small></a> has always + ascribed to me, though I fancy they have for the most part remained in a + latent state. + </p> + <p> + My regular school training was of the briefest, perhaps fortunately, for + though my way of life has made me acquainted with all sorts and conditions + of men, from the highest to the lowest, I deliberately affirm that the + society I fell into at school was the worst I have ever known. We boys + were average lads, with much the same inherent capacity for good and evil + as any others; but the people who were set over us cared about as much for + our intellectual and moral welfare as if they were baby-farmers. We were + left to the operation of the struggle for existence among ourselves, and + bullying was the least of the ill practices current among us. Almost the + only cheerful reminiscence in connection with the place which arises in my + mind is that of a battle I had with one of my classmates, who had bullied + me until I could stand it no longer. I was a very slight lad, but there + was a wild-cat element in me which, when roused, made up for lack of + weight, and I licked my adversary effectually. However, one of my first + experiences of the extremely rough-and-ready nature of justice, as + exhibited by the course of things in general, arose out of the fact that I—the + victor—had a black eye, while he—the vanquished—had + none, so that I got into disgrace and he did not. We made it up, and + thereafter I was unmolested. One of the greatest shocks I ever received in + my life was to be told a dozen years afterwards by the groom who brought + me my horse in a stable-yard in Sydney that he was my quondam antagonist. + He had a long story of family misfortune to account for his position, but + at that time it was necessary to deal very cautiously with mysterious + strangers in New South Wales, and on inquiry I found that the unfortunate + young man had not only been "sent out," but had undergone more than one + colonial conviction. + </p> + <p> + As I grew older, my great desire was to be a mechanical engineer, but the + fates were against this and, while very young, I commenced the study of + medicine under a medical brother-in-law. But, though the Institute of + Mechanical Engineers would certainly not own me, I am not sure that I have + not all along been a sort of mechanical engineer in partibus infidelium.<a + href="#linknote-6" name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a> + I am now occasionally horrified to think how very little I ever knew or + cared about medicine as the art of healing. The only part of my + professional course which really and deeply interested me was physiology, + which is the mechanical engineering of living machines; and, + notwithstanding that natural science has been my proper business, I am + afraid there is very little of the genuine naturalist in me. I never + collected anything, and species work was always a burden to me; what I + cared for was the architectural and engineering part of the business, the + working out of the wonderful unity of plan in the thousands and thousands + of diverse living constructions, and the modifications of similar + apparatuses to serve diverse ends. The extraordinary attraction I felt + towards the study of the intricacies of living structure nearly proved + fatal to me at the outset. I was a mere boy—I think between thirteen + and fourteen years of age—when I was taken by some older student + friends of mine to the first post-mortem examination I ever attended. All + my life I have been most unfortunately sensitive to the disagreeables + which attend anatomical pursuits, but on this occasion my curiosity + overpowered all other feelings, and I spent two or three hours in + gratifying it. I did not cut myself, and none of the ordinary symptoms of + dissection-poison supervened, but poisoned I was somehow, and I remember + sinking into a strange state of apathy. By way of a last chance, I was + sent to the care of some good, kind people, friends of my father's, who + lived in a farmhouse in the heart of Warwickshire. I remember staggering + from my bed to the window on the bright spring morning after my arrival, + and throwing open the casement. Life seemed to come back on the wings of + the breeze, and to this day the faint odor of wood-smoke, like that which + floated across the farm-yard in the early morning, is as good to me as the + "sweet south upon a bed of violets."<a href="#linknote-7" + name="linknoteref-7" id="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a> I soon + recovered, but for years I suffered from occasional paroxysms of internal + pain, and from that time my constant friend, hypochondriacal dyspepsia, + commenced his half century of co-tenancy of my fleshly tabernacle. + </p> + <p> + Looking back on my "Lehrjahre,"<a href="#linknote-8" name="linknoteref-8" + id="linknoteref-8"><small>8</small></a> I am sorry to say that I do not + think that any account of my doings as a student would tend to + edification. In fact, I should distinctly warn ingenuous youth to avoid + imitating my example. I worked extremely hard when it pleased me, and when + it did not—which was a very frequent case—I was extremely idle + (unless making caricatures of one's pastors and masters is to be called a + branch of industry), or else wasted my energies in wrong directions. I + read everything I could lay hands upon, including novels, and took up all + sorts of pursuits to drop them again quite as speedily. No doubt it was + very largely my own fault, but the only instruction from which I ever + obtained the proper effect of education was that which I received from Mr. + Wharton Jones, who was the lecturer on physiology at the Charing Cross + School of Medicine. The extent and precision of his knowledge impressed me + greatly, and the severe exactness of his method of lecturing was quite to + my taste. I do not know that I have ever felt so much respect for anybody + as a teacher before or since. I worked hard to obtain his approbation, and + he was extremely kind and helpful to the youngster who, I am afraid, took + up more of his time than he had any right to do. It was he who suggested + the publication of my first scientific paper—a very little one—in + the Medical Gazette of 1845, and most kindly corrected the literary faults + which abounded in it, short as it was; for at that time, and for many + years afterwards, I detested the trouble of writing, and would take no + pains over it. + </p> + <p> + It was in the early spring of 1846, that, having finished my obligatory + medical studies and passed the first M. D. examination at the London + University,—though I was still too young to qualify at the College + of Surgeons,—I was talking to a fellow-student (the present eminent + physician, Sir Joseph Fayrer), and wondering what I should do to meet the + imperative necessity for earning my own bread, when my friend suggested + that I should write to Sir William Burnett, at that time Director-General + for the Medical Service of the Navy, for an appointment. I thought this + rather a strong thing to do, as Sir William was personally unknown to me, + but my cheery friend would not listen to my scruples, so I went to my + lodgings and wrote the best letter I could devise. A few days afterwards I + received the usual official circular acknowledgment, but at the bottom + there was written an instruction to call at Somerset House on such a day. + I thought that looked like business, so at the appointed time I called and + sent in my card, while I waited in Sir William's ante-room. He was a tall, + shrewd-looking old gentleman, with a broad Scotch accent—and I think + I see him now as he entered with my card in his hand. The first thing he + did was to return it, with the frugal reminder that I should probably find + it useful on some other occasion. The second was to ask whether I was an + Irishman. I suppose the air of modesty about my appeal must have struck + him. I satisfied the Director-General that I was English to the backbone, + and he made some inquiries as to my student career, finally desiring me to + hold myself ready for examination. Having passed this, I was in Her + Majesty's Service, and entered on the books of Nelson's <a + href="#linknote-9" name="linknoteref-9" id="linknoteref-9"><small>9</small></a> + old ship, the Victory, for duty at Haslar Hospital, about a couple of + months after I made my application. + </p> + <p> + My official chief at Haslar was a very remarkable person, the late Sir + John Richardson, an excellent naturalist, and far-famed as an indomitable + Arctic traveller. He was a silent, reserved man, outside the circle of his + family and intimates; and, having a full share of youthful vanity, I was + extremely disgusted to find that "Old John," as we irreverent youngsters + called him, took not the slightest notice of my worshipful self either the + first time I attended him, as it was my duty to do, or for some weeks + afterwards. I am afraid to think of the lengths to which my tongue may + have run on the subject of the churlishness of the chief, who was, in + truth, one of the kindest-hearted and most considerate of men. But one + day, as I was crossing the hospital square, Sir John stopped me, and + heaped coals of fire on my head by telling me that he had tried to get me + one of the resident appointments, much coveted by the assistant surgeons, + but that the Admiralty had put in another man. "However," said he, "I mean + to keep you here till I can get you something you will like," and turned + upon his heel without waiting for the thanks I stammered out. That + explained how it was I had not been packed off to the West Coast of Africa + like some of my juniors, and why, eventually, I remained altogether seven + months at Haslar. + </p> + <p> + After a long interval, during which "Old John" ignored my existence almost + as completely as before, he stopped me again as we met in a casual way, + and describing the service on which the Rattlesnake was likely to be + employed, said that Captain Owen Stanley, who was to command the ship, had + asked him to recommend an assistant surgeon who knew something of science; + would I like that? Of course I jumped at the offer. "Very well, I give you + leave; go to London at once and see Captain Stanley." I went, saw my + future commander, who was very civil to me, and promised to ask that I + should be appointed to his ship, as in due time I was. It is a singular + thing that, during the few months of my stay at Haslar, I had among my + messmates two future Directors-General of the Medical Service of the Navy + (Sir Alexander Armstrong and Sir John Watt-Reid), with the present + President of the College of Physicians and my kindest of doctors, Sir + Andrew Clark. + </p> + <p> + Life on board Her Majesty's ship in those days was a very different affair + from what it is now, and ours was exceptionally rough, as we were often + many months without receiving letters or seeing any civilised people but + ourselves. In exchange, we had the interest of being about the last + voyagers, I suppose, to whom it could be possible to meet with people who + knew nothing of fire-arms—as we did on the south coast of New Guinea—and + of making acquaintance with a variety of interesting savage and + semi-civilised people. But, apart from experience of this kind and the + opportunities offered for scientific work, to me, personally, the cruise + was extremely valuable. It was good for me to live under sharp discipline; + to be down on the realities of existence by living on bare necessaries; to + find out how extremely well worth living life seemed to be when one woke + up from a night's rest on a soft plank, with the sky for canopy and cocoa + and weevilly biscuit the sole prospect for breakfast; and, more + especially, to learn to work for the sake of what I got for myself out of + it, even if it all went to the bottom and I along with it. My brother + officers were as good fellows as sailors ought to be and generally are, + but, naturally, they neither knew nor cared anything about my pursuits, + nor understood why I should be so zealous in pursuit of the objects which + my friends, the middies,<a href="#linknote-10" name="linknoteref-10" + id="linknoteref-10"><small>10</small></a> christened "Buffons," after the + title conspicuous on a volume of the Suites a Buffon,<a href="#linknote-11" + name="linknoteref-11" id="linknoteref-11"><small>11</small></a> which + stood on my shelf in the chart room. + </p> + <p> + During the four years of our absence, I sent home communication after + communication to the "Linnean Society,"<a href="#linknote-12" + name="linknoteref-12" id="linknoteref-12"><small>12</small></a> with the + same result as that obtained by Noah when he sent the raven out of his + ark. Tired at last of hearing nothing about them, I determined to do or + die, and in 1849 I drew up a more elaborate paper and forwarded it to the + Royal Society.<a href="#linknote-13" name="linknoteref-13" + id="linknoteref-13"><small>13</small></a> This was my dove, if I had only + known it. But owing to the movements of the ship, I heard nothing of that + either until my return to England in the latter end of the year 1850, when + I found that it was printed and published, and that a huge packet of + separate copies awaited me. When I hear some of my young friends complain + of want of sympathy and encouragement, I am inclined to think that my + naval life was not the least valuable part of my education. + </p> + <p> + Three years after my return were occupied by a battle between my + scientific friends on the one hand and the Admiralty on the other, as to + whether the latter ought, or ought not, to act up to the spirit of a + pledge they had given to encourage officers who had done scientific work + by contributing to the expense of publishing mine. At last the Admiralty, + getting tired, I suppose, cut short the discussion by ordering me to join + a ship, which thing I declined to do, and as Rastignac,<a + href="#linknote-14" name="linknoteref-14" id="linknoteref-14"><small>14</small></a> + in the Pere Goriot <a href="#linknote-15" name="linknoteref-15" + id="linknoteref-15"><small>15</small></a> says to Paris, I said to London + "a nous deux." I desired to obtain a Professorship of either Physiology or + Comparative Anatomy, and as vacancies occurred I applied, but in vain. My + friend, Professor Tyndall,<a href="#linknote-16" name="linknoteref-16" + id="linknoteref-16"><small>16</small></a> and I were candidates at the + same time, he for the Chair of Physics and I for that of Natural History + in the University of Toronto, which, fortunately, as it turned out, would + not look at either of us. I say fortunately, not from any lack of respect + for Toronto, but because I soon made up my mind that London was the place + for me, and hence I have steadily declined the inducements to leave it, + which have at various times been offered. At last, in 1854, on the + translation of my warm friend Edward Forbes, to Edinburgh, Sir Henry de la + Beche, the Director-General of the Geological Survey, offered me the post + Forbes vacated of Paleontologist and Lecturer on Natural History. I + refused the former point blank, and accepted the latter only + provisionally, telling Sir Henry that I did not care for fossils, and that + I should give up Natural History as soon as I could get a physiological + post. But I held the office for thirty-one years, and a large part of my + work has been paleontological. + </p> + <p> + At that time I disliked public speaking, and had a firm conviction that I + should break down every time I opened my mouth. I believe I had every + fault a speaker could have (except talking at random or indulging in + rhetoric), when I spoke to the first important audience I ever addressed, + on a Friday evening at the Royal Institution, in 1852. Yet, I must confess + to having been guilty, malgre moi, of as much public speaking as most of + my contemporaries, and for the last ten years it ceased to be so much of a + bugbear to me. I used to pity myself for having to go through this + training, but I am now more disposed to compassionate the unfortunate + audiences, especially my ever friendly hearers at the Royal Institution, + who were the subjects of my oratorical experiments. + </p> + <p> + The last thing that it would be proper for me to do would be to speak of + the work of my life, or to say at the end of the day whether I think I + have earned my wages or not. Men are said to be partial judges of + themselves. Young men may be, I doubt if old men are. Life seems terribly + foreshortened as they look back and the mountain they set themselves to + climb in youth turns out to be a mere spur of immeasurably higher ranges + when, by failing breath, they reach the top. But if I may speak of the + objects I have had more or less definitely in view since I began the + ascent of my hillock, they are briefly these: To promote the increase of + natural knowledge and to forward the application of scientific methods of + investigation to all the problems of life to the best of my ability, in + the conviction which has grown with my growth and strengthened with my + strength, that there is no alleviation for the sufferings of mankind + except veracity of thought and of action, and the resolute facing of the + world as it is when the garment of make-believe by which pious hands have + hidden its uglier features is stripped off. + </p> + <p> + It is with this intent that I have subordinated any reasonable, or + unreasonable, ambition for scientific fame which I may have permitted + myself to entertain to other ends; to the popularization of science; to + the development and organisation of scientific education; to the endless + series of battles and skirmishes over evolution; and to untiring + opposition to that ecclesiastical spirit,<a href="#linknote-17" + name="linknoteref-17" id="linknoteref-17"><small>17</small></a> that + clericalism, which in England, as everywhere else, and to whatever + denomination it may belong, is the deadly enemy of science. + </p> + <p> + In striving for the attainment of these objects, I have been but one among + many, and I shall be well content to be remembered, or even not + remembered, as such. Circumstances, among which I am proud to reckon the + devoted kindness of many friends, have led to my occupation of various + prominent positions, among which the Presidency of the Royal Society is + the highest. It would be mock modesty on my part, with these and other + scientific honours which have been bestowed upon me, to pretend that I + have not succeeded in the career which I have followed, rather because I + was driven into it than of my own free will; but I am afraid I should not + count even these things as marks of success if I could not hope that I had + somewhat helped that movement of opinion which has been called the New + Reformation.<a href="#linknote-18" name="linknoteref-18" + id="linknoteref-18"><small>18</small></a> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE <a href="#linknote-19" + name="linknoteref-19" id="linknoteref-19"><small>19</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + This time two hundred years ago—in the beginning of January, 1666—those + of our forefathers who inhabited this great and ancient city, took breath + between the shocks of two fearful calamities: one not quite past, although + its fury had abated; the other to come. + </p> + <p> + Within a few yards of the very spot <a href="#linknote-20" + name="linknoteref-20" id="linknoteref-20"><small>20</small></a> on which + we are assembled, so the tradition runs, that painful and deadly malady, + the plague, appeared in the latter months of 1664; and, though no new + visitor, smote the people of England, and especially of her capital, with + a violence unknown before, in the course of the following year. The hand + of a master has pictured what happened in those dismal months; and in that + truest of fictions, The History of the Plague Year, Defoe <a + href="#linknote-21" name="linknoteref-21" id="linknoteref-21"><small>21</small></a> + shows death, with every accompaniment of pain and terror, stalking through + the narrow streets of old London, and changing their busy hum into a + silence broken only by the wailing of the mourners of fifty thousand dead; + by the woeful denunciations and mad prayers of fanatics; and by the madder + yells of despairing profligates. + </p> + <p> + But, about this time in 1666, the death-rate had sunk to nearly its + ordinary amount; a case of plague occurred only here and there, and the + richer citizens who had flown from the pest had returned to their + dwellings. The remnant of the people began to toil at the accustomed round + of duty, or of pleasure; and the stream of city life bid fair to flow back + along its old bed, with renewed and uninterrupted vigour. + </p> + <p> + The newly kindled hope was deceitful. The great plague, indeed, returned + no more; but what it had done for the Londoners, the great fire, which + broke out in the autumn of 1666, did for London; and, in September of that + year, a heap of ashes and the indestructible energy of the people were all + that remained of the glory of five-sixths of the city within the walls. + </p> + <p> + Our forefathers had their own ways of accounting for each of these + calamities. They submitted to the plague in humility and in penitence, for + they believed it to be the judgment of God. But, towards the fire they + were furiously indignant, interpreting it as the effect of the malice of + man,—as the work of the Republicans, or of the Papists, according as + their prepossessions ran in favour of loyalty or of Puritanism. + </p> + <p> + It would, I fancy, have fared but ill with one who, standing where I now + stand, in what was then a thickly peopled and fashionable part of London, + should have broached to our ancestors the doctrine which I now propound to + you—that all their hypotheses were alike wrong; that the plague was + no more, in their sense, Divine judgment, than the fire was the work of + any political, or of any religious sect; but that they were themselves the + authors of both plague and fire, and that they must look to themselves to + prevent the recurrence of calamities, to all appearance so peculiarly + beyond the reach of human control—so evidently the result of the + wrath of God, or of the craft and subtlety of an enemy. + </p> + <p> + And one may picture to one's self how harmoniously the holy cursing of the + Puritan of that day would have chimed in with the unholy cursing and the + crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys,<a href="#linknote-22" + name="linknoteref-22" id="linknoteref-22"><small>22</small></a> and with + the revilings of the political fanatics, if my imaginary plain dealer had + gone on to say that, if the return of such misfortunes were ever rendered + impossible, it would not be in virtue of the victory of the faith of Laud,<a + href="#linknote-23" name="linknoteref-23" id="linknoteref-23"><small>23</small></a> + or of that of Milton; and, as little, by the triumph of republicanism, as + by that of monarchy. But that the one thing needful for compassing this + end was, that the people of England should second the efforts of an + insignificant corporation, the establishment of which, a few years before + the epoch of the great plague and the great fire, had been as little + noticed, as they were conspicuous. + </p> + <p> + Some twenty years before the outbreak of the plague a few calm and + thoughtful students banded themselves together for the purpose, as they + phrased it, of "improving natural knowledge." The ends they proposed to + attain cannot be stated more clearly than in the words of one of the + founders of the organisation:— + </p> + <p> + "Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to + discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, and such as related + thereunto:—as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, + Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments; with + the state of these studies and their cultivation at home and abroad. We + then discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves in the veins, + the venae lacteae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican hypothesis, the + nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of Jupiter, the oval shape + (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots on the sun and its turning on + its own axis, the inequalities and selenography <a href="#linknote-24" + name="linknoteref-24" id="linknoteref-24"><small>24</small></a> of the + moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, the improvement of + telescopes and grinding of glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, + the possibility or impossibility of vacuities and nature's abhorrence + thereof, the Torricellian experiment <a href="#linknote-25" + name="linknoteref-25" id="linknoteref-25"><small>25</small></a> in + quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of acceleration + therein, with divers other things of like nature, some of which were then + but new discoveries, and others not so generally known and embraced as now + they are; with other things appertaining to what hath been called the New + Philosophy, which from the times of Galileo at Florence, and Sir Francis + Bacon <a href="#linknote-26" name="linknoteref-26" id="linknoteref-26"><small>26</small></a> + (Lord Verulam) in England, hath been much cultivated in Italy, France, + Germany, and other parts abroad, as well as with us in England." + </p> + <p> + The learned Dr. Wallis,<a href="#linknote-27" name="linknoteref-27" + id="linknoteref-27"><small>27</small></a> writing in 1696, narrates in + these words, what happened half a century before, or about 1645. The + associates met at Oxford, in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to + become a bishop; and subsequently coming together in London, they + attracted the notice of the king. And it is a strange evidence of the + taste for knowledge which the most obviously worthless of the Stuarts + shared with his father and grandfather, that Charles the Second was not + content with saying witty things about his philosophers, but did wise + things with regard to them. For he not only bestowed upon them such + attention as he could spare from his poodles and his mistresses, but, + being in his usual state of impecuniosity, begged for them of the Duke of + Ormond; and, that step being without effect, gave them Chelsea College, a + charter, and a mace: crowning his favours in the best way they could be + crowned, by burdening them no further with royal patronage or state + interference. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, studious of the "New + Philosophy," <a href="#linknote-28" name="linknoteref-28" + id="linknoteref-28"><small>28</small></a> who met in one another's + lodgings in Oxford or in London, in the middle of the seventeenth century, + grew in numerical and in real strength, until, in its latter part, the + "Royal Society for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge" had already + become famous, and had acquired a claim upon the veneration of Englishmen, + which it has ever since retained, as the principal focus of scientific + activity in our islands, and the chief champion of the cause it was formed + to support. + </p> + <p> + It was by the aid of the Royal Society <a href="#linknote-29" + name="linknoteref-29" id="linknoteref-29"><small>29</small></a> that + Newton <a href="#linknote-30" name="linknoteref-30" id="linknoteref-30"><small>30</small></a> + published his Principia. If all the books in the world, except the + Philosophical Transactions, <a href="#linknote-31" name="linknoteref-31" + id="linknoteref-31"><small>31</small></a> were destroyed, it is safe to + say that the foundations of physical science would remain unshaken, and + that the vast intellectual progress of the last two centuries would be + largely, though incompletely, recorded. Nor have any signs of halting or + of decrepitude manifested themselves in our own times. As in Dr. Wallis's + days, so in these, "our business is, precluding theology and state + affairs, to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries." But our + "Mathematick" is one which Newton would have to go to school to learn; our + "Staticks, Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural Experiments" + constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, a glimpse at which + would compensate Galileo <a href="#linknote-32" name="linknoteref-32" + id="linknoteref-32"><small>32</small></a> for the doings of a score of + inquisitorial cardinals; our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced such + infinite varieties of beings, have laid open such new worlds in time and + space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex problems, that + the eyes of Vesalius <a href="#linknote-33" name="linknoteref-33" + id="linknoteref-33"><small>33</small></a> and of Harvey <a + href="#linknote-34" name="linknoteref-34" id="linknoteref-34"><small>34</small></a> + might be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of their + grain of mustard seed. + </p> + <p> + The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, forced upon one's + notice, nowadays, that all this marvellous intellectual growth has a no + less wonderful expression in practical life; and that, in this respect, if + in no other, the movement symbolised by the progress of the Royal Society + stands without a parallel in the history of mankind. + </p> + <p> + A series of volumes as bulky as the "Transactions of the Royal Society" + might possibly be filled with the subtle speculations <a + href="#linknote-35" name="linknoteref-35" id="linknoteref-35"><small>35</small></a> + of the Schoolmen;<a href="#linknote-36" name="linknoteref-36" + id="linknoteref-36"><small>36</small></a> not improbably, the obtaining a + mastery over the products of mediaeval thought might necessitate an even + greater expenditure of time and of energy than the acquirement of the "New + Philosophy"; but though such work engrossed the best intellects of Europe + for a longer time than has elapsed since the great fire, its effects were + "writ in water,"<a href="#linknote-37" name="linknoteref-37" + id="linknoteref-37"><small>37</small></a> so far as our social state is + concerned. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, if the noble first President of the Royal Society could + revisit the upper air and once more gladden his eyes with a sight of the + familiar mace, he would find himself in the midst of a material + civilisation more different from that of his day, than that of the + seventeenth was from that of the first century. And if Lord Brouncker's <a + href="#linknote-38" name="linknoteref-38" id="linknoteref-38"><small>38</small></a> + native sagacity had not deserted his ghost, he would need no long + reflection to discover that all these great ships, these railways, these + telegraphs, these factories, these printing-presses, without which the + whole fabric of modern English society would collapse into a mass of + stagnant and starving pauperism,—that all these pillars of our State + are but the ripples and the bubbles upon the surface of that great + spiritual stream, the springs of which only, he and his fellows were + privileged to see; and seeing, to recognise as that which it behoved them + above all things to keep pure and undefiled. + </p> + <p> + It may not be too great a flight of imagination to conceive our noble + revenant <a href="#linknote-39" name="linknoteref-39" id="linknoteref-39"><small>39</small></a> + not forgetful of the great troubles of his own day, and anxious to know + how often London had been burned down since his time and how often the + plague had carried off its thousands. He would have to learn that, + although London contains tenfold the inflammable matter that it did in + 1666; though, not content with filling our rooms with woodwork and light + draperies, we must needs lead inflammable and explosive gases into every + corner of our streets and houses, we never allow even a street to burn + down. And if he asked how this had come about, we should have to explain + that the improvement of natural knowledge has furnished us with dozens of + machines for throwing water upon fires, any one of which would have + furnished the ingenious Mr. Hooke, the first "curator and experimenter" of + the Royal Society, with ample materials for discourse before half a dozen + meetings of that body; and that, to say truth, except for the progress of + natural knowledge, we should not have been able to make even the tools by + which these machines are constructed. And, further, it would be necessary + to add, that although severe fires sometimes occur and inflict great + damage, the loss is very generally compensated by societies, the + operations of which have been rendered possible only by the progress of + natural knowledge in the direction of mathematics, and the accumulation of + wealth in virtue of other natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + But the plague? My Lord Brouncker's observation would not, I fear, lead + him to think that Englishmen of the nineteenth century are purer in life, + or more fervent in religious faith, than the generation which could + produce a Boyle,<a href="#linknote-40" name="linknoteref-40" + id="linknoteref-40"><small>40</small></a> an Evelyn,<a href="#linknote-41" + name="linknoteref-41" id="linknoteref-41"><small>41</small></a> and a + Milton. He might find the mud of society at the bottom, instead of at the + top, but I fear that the sum total would be as deserving of swift judgment + as at the time of the Restoration.<a href="#linknote-42" + name="linknoteref-42" id="linknoteref-42"><small>42</small></a> And it + would be our duty to explain once more, and this time not without shame, + that we have no reason to believe that it is the improvement of our faith, + nor that of our morals, which keeps the plague from our city; but, again, + that it is the improvement of our natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + We have learned that pestilences will only take up their abode among those + who have prepared unswept and ungarnished residences for them. Their + cities must have narrow, unwatered streets, foul with accumulated garbage. + Their houses must be ill-drained, ill-lighted, ill-ventilated. Their + subjects must be ill-washed, ill-fed, ill-clothed. The London of 1665 was + such a city. The cities of the East, where plague has an enduring + dwelling, are such cities. We, in later times, have learned somewhat of + Nature, and partly obey her. Because of this partial improvement of our + natural knowledge and of that fractional obedience, we have no plague; + because that knowledge is still very imperfect and that obedience yet + incomplete, typhoid is our companion and cholera our visitor. But it is + not presumptuous to express the belief that, when our knowledge is more + complete and our obedience the expression of our knowledge, London will + count her centuries of freedom from typhoid and cholera, as she now + gratefully reckons her two hundred years of ignorance of that plague which + swooped upon her thrice in the first half of the seventeenth century. + </p> + <p> + Surely, there is nothing in these explanations which is not fully borne + out by the facts? Surely, the principles involved in them are now admitted + among the fixed beliefs of all thinking men? Surely, it is true that our + countrymen are less subject to fire, famine, pestilence, and all the evils + which result from a want of command over and due anticipation of the + course of Nature, than were the countrymen of Milton; and health, wealth, + and well-being are more abundant with us than with them? But no less + certainly is the difference due to the improvement of our knowledge of + Nature, and the extent to which that improved knowledge has been + incorporated with the household words of men, and has supplied the springs + of their daily actions. + </p> + <p> + Granting for a moment, then, the truth of that which the depreciators of + natural knowledge are so fond of urging, that its improvement can only add + to the resources of our material civilisation; admitting it to be possible + that the founders of the Royal Society themselves looked for not other + reward than this, I cannot confess that I was guilty of exaggeration when + I hinted, that to him who had the gift of distinguishing between prominent + events and important events, the origin of a combined effort on the part + of mankind to improve natural knowledge might have loomed larger than the + Plague and have outshone the glare of the Fire; as a something fraught + with a wealth of beneficence to mankind, in comparison with which the + damage done by those ghastly evils would shrink into insignificance. + </p> + <p> + It is very certain that for every victim slain by the plague, hundreds of + mankind exist and find a fair share of happiness in the world by the aid + of the spinning jenny. And the great fire, at its worst, could not have + burned the supply of coal, the daily working of which, in the bowels of + the earth, made possible by the steam pump, gives rise to an amount of + wealth to which the millions lost in old London are but as an old song. + </p> + <p> + But spinning jenny and steam pump are, after all, but toys, possessing an + accidental value; and natural knowledge creates multitudes of more subtle + contrivances, the praises of which do not happen to be sung because they + are not directly convertible into instruments for creating wealth. When I + contemplate natural knowledge squandering such gifts among men, the only + appropriate comparison I can find for her is to liken her to such a + peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever upward, heavily + burdened, and with mind bent only on her home; but yet without effort and + without thought, knitting for her children. Now stockings are good and + comfortable things, and the children will undoubtedly be much the better + for them; but surely it would be short-sighted, to say the least of it, to + depreciate this toiling mother as a mere stocking-machine—a mere + provider of physical comforts? + </p> + <p> + However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a few of them, who + take this view of natural knowledge, and can see nothing in the bountiful + mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding machine. According to + them, the improvement of natural knowledge always has been, and always + must be, synonymous with no more than the improvement of the material + resources and the increase of the gratifications of men. + </p> + <p> + Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of mankind, bringing + them up with kindness, and, if need be, with sternness, in the way they + should go, and instructing them in all things needful for their welfare; + but a sort of fairy god-mother, ready to furnish her pets with shoes of + swiftness, swords of sharpness, and omnipotent Aladdin's lamps,<a + href="#linknote-43" name="linknoteref-43" id="linknoteref-43"><small>43</small></a> + so that they may have telegraphs to Saturn, and see the other side of the + moon, and thank God they are better than their benighted ancestors. + </p> + <p> + If this talk were true, I, for one, should not greatly care to toil in the + service of natural knowledge. I think I would just as soon be quietly + chipping my own flint axe, after the manner of my forefathers a few + thousand years back, as be troubled with the endless malady of thought + which now infests us all, for such reward. But I venture to say that such + views are contrary alike to reason and to fact. Those who discourse in + such fashion seem to me to be so intent upon trying to see what is above + Nature, or what is behind her, that they are blind to what stares them in + the face in her. + </p> + <p> + I should not venture thus to speak strongly if my justification were not + to be found in the simplest and most obvious facts,—if it needed + more than an appeal to the most notorious truths to justify my assertion, + that the improvement of natural knowledge, whatever direction it has + taken, and however low the aims of those who may have commenced it—has + not only conferred practical benefits on men, but, in so doing, has + effected a revolution in their conceptions of the universe and of + themselves, and has profoundly altered their modes of thinking and their + views of right and wrong. I say that natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy + natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual + cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws + of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay the + foundations of a new morality. + </p> + <p> + Let us take these points separately; and first, what great ideas has + natural knowledge introduced into men's minds? + </p> + <p> + I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural knowledge were laid + when the reason of man first came face to face with the facts of Nature; + when the savage first learned that the fingers of one hand are fewer than + those of both; that it is shorter to cross a stream than to head it; that + a stone stops where it is unless it be moved, and that it drops from the + hand which lets it go; that light and heat come and go with the sun; that + sticks burn away in a fire; that plants and animals grow and die; that if + he struck his fellow savage a blow he would make him angry, and perhaps + get a blow in return, while if he offered him a fruit he would please him, + and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. When men had acquired this much + knowledge, the outlines, rude though they were, of mathematics, of + physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, economical, and political + science, were sketched. Nor did the germ of religion fail when science + began to bud. Listen to words which, though new, are yet three thousand + years old:— + </p> + <p> + . . . When in heaven the stars about the moon Look beautiful, when all the + winds are laid, And every height comes out, and jutting peak And valley, + and the immeasurable heavens Break open to their highest, and all the + stars Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart.<a href="#linknote-44" + name="linknoteref-44" id="linknoteref-44"><small>44</small></a> + </p> + <p> + If the half savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, it is + irrational to doubt that he went further, to find as we do, that upon that + brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow,—the little light of + awakened human intelligence shines so mere a spark amidst the abyss of the + unknown and unknowable; seems so insufficient to do more than illuminate + the imperfections that cannot be remedied, the aspirations that cannot be + realised, of man's own nature. But in this sadness, this consciousness of + the limitation of man, this sense of an open secret which he cannot + penetrate, lies the essence of all religion; and the attempt to embody it + in the forms furnished by the intellect is the origin of the higher + theologies. + </p> + <p> + Thus it seems impossible to imagine but that the foundations of all + knowledge—secular or sacred—were laid when intelligence + dawned, though the superstructure remained for long ages so slight and + feeble as to be compatible with the existence of almost any general view + respecting the mode of governance of the universe. No doubt, from the + first, there were certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind, presented a + constancy of occurrence, and suggested that a fixed order ruled, at any + rate, among them. I doubt if the grossest of Fetish worshippers ever + imagined that a stone must have a god within it to make it fall, or that a + fruit had a god within it to make it taste sweet. With regard to such + matters as these, it is hardly questionable that mankind from the first + took strictly positive and scientific views. + </p> + <p> + But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which present + themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always taken himself as the + standard of comparison, as the centre and measure of the world; nor could + be well avoid doing so. And finding that his apparently uncaused will has + a powerful effect in giving rise to many occurrences, he naturally enough + ascribed other and greater events to other and greater volitions and came + to look upon the world and all that therein is, as the product of the + volitions of persons like himself, but stronger, and capable of being + appeased or angered, as he himself might be soothed or irritated. Through + such conceptions of the plan and working of the universe all mankind have + passed, or are passing. And we may now consider what has been the effect + of the improvement of natural knowledge on the views of men who have + reached this stage, and who have begun to cultivate natural knowledge with + no desire but that of "increasing God's honour and bettering man's + estate."<a href="#linknote-45" name="linknoteref-45" id="linknoteref-45"><small>45</small></a> + </p> + <p> + For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material point of view, + more innocent, from a theological one, to an ancient people, than that + they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as warnings for + their husbandmen; or the position of the stars, as guides to their rude + navigators?<a href="#linknote-46" name="linknoteref-46" id="linknoteref-46"><small>46</small></a> + But what has grown out of this search for natural knowledge of so merely + useful a character? You all know the reply. Astronomy,—which of all + sciences has filled men's minds with general ideas of a character most + foreign to their daily experience, and has, more than any other, rendered + it impossible for them to accept the beliefs of their fathers. Astronomy,—which + tells them that this so vast and seemingly solid earth is but an atom + among atoms, whirling, no man knows whither, through illimitable space; + which demonstrates that what we call the peaceful heaven above us, is but + that space, filled by an infinitely subtle matter whose particles are + seething and surging, like the waves of an angry sea; which opens up to us + infinite regions where nothing is known, or ever seems to have been known, + but matter and force, operating according to rigid rules; which leads us + to contemplate phaenomena the very nature of which demonstrates that they + must have had a beginning, and that they must have an end, but the very + nature of which also proves that the beginning was, to our conceptions of + time, infinitely remote, and that the end is as immeasurably distant. + </p> + <p> + But it is not alone those who pursue astronomy who ask for bread and + receive ideas. What more harmless than the attempt to lift and distribute + water by pumping it; what more absolutely and grossly utilitarian? Yet out + of pumps grew the discussions about Nature's abhorrence of a vacuum; and + then it was discovered that Nature does not abhor a vacuum, but that air + has weight; and that notion paved the way for the doctrine that all matter + has weight, and that the force which produces weight is co-extensive with + the universe,—in short, to the theory of universal gravitation and + endless force. While learning how to handle gases led to the discovery of + oxygen, and to modern chemistry, and to the notion of the + indestructibility of matter. + </p> + <p> + Again, what simpler, or more absolutely practical, than the attempt to + keep the axle of a wheel from heating when the wheel turns round very + fast? How useful for carters and gig drivers to know something about this; + and how good were it, if any ingenious person would find out the cause of + such phaenomena, and thence educe a general remedy for them. Such an + ingenious person was Count Rumford;<a href="#linknote-47" + name="linknoteref-47" id="linknoteref-47"><small>47</small></a> and he and + his successors have landed us in the theory of the persistence, or + indestructibility, of force. And in the infinitely minute, as in the + infinitely great, the seekers after natural knowledge of the kinds called + physical and chemical, have everywhere found a definite order and + succession of events which seem never to be infringed. + </p> + <p> + And how has it fared with "Physick" and Anatomy? Have the anatomist, the + physiologist, or the physician, whose business it has been to devote + themselves assiduously to that eminently practical and direct end, the + alleviation of the sufferings of mankind,—have they been able to + confine their vision more absolutely to the strictly useful? I fear they + are the worst offenders of all. For if the astronomer has set before us + the infinite magnitude of space, and the practical eternity of the + duration of the universe; if the physical and chemical philosophers have + demonstrated the infinite minuteness of its constituent parts, and the + practical eternity of matter and of force; and if both have alike + proclaimed the universality of a definite and predicable order and + succession of events, the workers in biology have not only accepted all + these, but have added more startling theses of their own. For, as the + astronomers discover in the earth no centre of the universe, but an + eccentric <a href="#linknote-48" name="linknoteref-48" id="linknoteref-48"><small>48</small></a> + speck, so the naturalists find man to be no centre of the living world, + but one amidst endless modifications of life; and as the astronomers + observe the mark of practically endless time set upon the arrangements of + the solar system so the student of life finds the records of ancient forms + of existence peopling the world for ages, which, in relation to human + experience, are infinite. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore, the physiologist finds life to be as dependent for its + manifestation of particular molecular arrangements as any physical or + chemical phenomenon; and wherever he extends his researches, fixed order + and unchanging causation reveal themselves, as plainly as in the rest of + Nature. + </p> + <p> + Nor can I find that any other fate has awaited the germ of Religion. + Arising, like all other kinds of knowledge, out of the action and + interaction of man's mind, with that which is not man's mind, it has taken + the intellectual coverings of Fetishism or Polytheism; of Theism or + Atheism; of Superstition or Rationalism. With these, and their relative + merits and demerits, I have nothing to do; but this it is needful for my + purpose to say, that if the religion of the present differs from that of + the past, it is because the theology of the present has become more + scientific than that of the past; because it has not only renounced idols + of wood and idols of stone, but begins to see the necessity of breaking in + pieces the idols built up of books and traditions and fine-spun + ecclesiastical cobwebs: and of cherishing the noblest and most human of + man's emotions, by worship "for the most part of the silent sort" at the + Altar of the Unknown. + </p> + <p> + Such are a few of the new conceptions implanted in our minds by the + improvement of natural knowledge. Men have acquired the ideas of the + practically infinite extent of the universe and of its practical eternity; + they are familiar with the conception that our earth is but an + infinitesimal fragment of that part of the universe which can be seen; and + that, nevertheless, its duration is, as compared with our standards of + time, infinite. They have further acquired the idea that man is but one of + innumerable forms of life now existing on the globe, and that the present + existences are but the last of an immeasurable series of predecessors. + Moreover, every step they have made in natural knowledge has tended to + extend and rivet in their minds the conception of a definite order of the + universe—which is embodied in what are called, by an unhappy + metaphor, the laws of Nature—and to narrow the range and loosen the + force of men's belief in spontaneity, or in changes other than such as + arise out of that definite order itself. + </p> + <p> + Whether these ideas are well or ill founded is not the question. No one + can deny that they exist, and have been the inevitable outgrowth of the + improvement of natural knowledge. And if so, it cannot be doubted that + they are changing the form of men's most cherished and most important + convictions. + </p> + <p> + And as regards the second point—the extent to which the improvement + of natural knowledge has remodelled and altered what may be termed the + intellectual ethics of men,—what are among the moral convictions + most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people? + </p> + <p> + They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of belief; + that merit attaches to a readiness to believe; that the doubting + disposition is a bad one, and scepticism a sin; that when good authority + has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted it, reason + has no further duty. There are many excellent persons who yet hold by + these principles, and it is not my present business, or intention, to + discuss their views. All I wish to bring clearly before your minds is the + unquestionable fact, that the improvement of natural knowledge is effected + by methods which directly give the lie to all these convictions, and + assume the exact reverse of each to be true. + </p> + <p> + The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge + authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind + faith the one unpardonable sin. And it cannot be otherwise, for every + great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of + authority, the cherishing of the keenest scepticism, the annihilation of + the spirit of blind faith; and the most ardent votary of science holds his + firmest convictions, not because the men he most venerates hold them; not + because their verity is testified by portents and wonders; but because his + experience teaches him that whenever he chooses to bring these convictions + into contact with their primary source, Nature—whenever he thinks + fit to test them by appealing to experiment and to observation—Nature + will confirm them. The man of science has learned to believe in + justification, not by faith, but by verification. + </p> + <p> + Thus, without for a moment pretending to despise the practical results of + the improvement of natural knowledge, and its beneficial influence on + material civilisation, it must, I think, be admitted that the great ideas, + some of which I have indicated, and the ethical spirit which I have + endeavoured to sketch, in the few moments which remained at my disposal, + constitute the real and permanent significance of natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + If these ideas be destined, as I believe they are, to be more and more + firmly established as the world grows older; if that spirit be fated, as I + believe it is, to extend itself into all departments of human thought, and + to become co-extensive with the range of knowledge; if, as our race + approaches its maturity, it discovers, as I believe it will, that there is + but one kind of knowledge and but one method of acquiring it; then we, who + are still children, may justly feel it our highest duty to recognise the + advisableness of improving natural knowledge, and so to aid ourselves and + our successors in our course towards the noble goal which lies before + mankind. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A LIBERAL EDUCATION <a href="#linknote-49" name="linknoteref-49" + id="linknoteref-49"><small>49</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + The business which the South London Working Men's College has undertaken + is a great work; indeed, I might say, that Education, with which that + college proposes to grapple, is the greatest work of all those which lie + ready to a man's hand just at present. + </p> + <p> + And, at length, this fact is becoming generally recognised. You cannot go + anywhere without hearing a buzz of more or less confused and contradictory + talk on this subject—nor can you fail to notice that, in one point + at any rate, there is a very decided advance upon like discussions in + former days. Nobody outside the agricultural interest now dares to say + that education is a bad thing. If any representative of the once large and + powerful party, which, in former days, proclaimed this opinion, still + exists in the semi-fossil state, he keeps his thoughts to himself. In + fact, there is a chorus of voices, almost distressing in their harmony, + raised in favour of the doctrine that education is the great panacea for + human troubles, and that, if the country is not shortly to go to the dogs, + everybody must be educated. + </p> + <p> + The politicians tell us, "You must educate the masses because they are + going to be masters." The clergy join in the cry for education, for they + affirm that the people are drifting away from church and chapel into the + broadest infidelity. The manufacturers and the capitalists swell the + chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance makes bad workmen; that + England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods, or steam engines, + cheaper than other people; and then, Ichabod! Ichabod!<a + href="#linknote-50" name="linknoteref-50" id="linknoteref-50"><small>50</small></a> + the glory will be departed from us. And a few voices are lifted up in + favour of the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they are + men and women with unlimited capacities of being, doing, and suffering, + and that it is as true now, as it ever was, that the people perish for + lack of knowledge. + </p> + <p> + These members of the minority, with whom I confess I have a good deal of + sympathy, are doubtful whether any of the other reasons urged in favour of + the education of the people are of much value—whether, indeed, some + of them are based upon either wise or noble grounds of action. They + question if it be wise to tell people that you will do for them, out of + fear of their power, what you have left undone, so long as your only + motive was compassion for their weakness and their sorrows. And, if + ignorance of everything which is needful a ruler should know is likely to + do so much harm in the governing classes of the future, why is it, they + ask reasonably enough, that such ignorance in the governing classes of the + past has not been viewed with equal horror? + </p> + <p> + Compare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it may be + doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in point of + ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that the ignorance is + of a different sort—that the class feeling is in favour of a + different class and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of + wrong-headedness in each case—but it is questionable if the one is + either a bit better, or a bit worse, than the other. The old protectionist + theory is the doctrine of trades unions as applied by the squires, and the + modern trades unionism is the doctrine of the squires applied by the + artisans. Why should we be worse off under one regime than under the + other? + </p> + <p> + Again, this sceptical minority asks the clergy to think whether it is + really want of education which keeps the masses away from their + ministrations—whether the most completely educated men are not as + open to reproach on this score as the workmen; and whether, perchance, + this may not indicate that it is not education which lies at the bottom of + the matter? + </p> + <p> + Once more, these people, whom there is no pleasing, venture to doubt + whether the glory which rests upon being able to undersell all the rest of + the world, is a very safe kind of glory—whether we may not purchase + it too dear; especially if we allow education, which ought to be directed + to the making of men, to be diverted into a process of manufacturing human + tools, wonderfully adroit in the exercise of some technical industry, but + good for nothing else. + </p> + <p> + And, finally, these people inquire whether it is the masses alone who need + a reformed and improved education. They ask whether the richest of our + public schools might not well be made to supply knowledge, as well as + gentlemanly habits, a strong class feeling, and eminent proficiency in + cricket. They seem to think that the noble foundations of our old + universities are hardly fulfilling their functions in their present + posture of half-clerical seminaries, half racecourses, where men are + trained to win a senior wranglership,<a href="#linknote-51" + name="linknoteref-51" id="linknoteref-51"><small>51</small></a> or a + double-first,<a href="#linknote-52" name="linknoteref-52" + id="linknoteref-52"><small>52</small></a> as horses are trained to win a + cup, with as little reference to the needs of after-life in the case of a + man as in that of the racer. And, while as zealous for education as the + rest, they affirm that, if the education of the richer classes were such + as to fit them to be the leaders and the governors of the poorer; and, if + the education of the poorer classes were such as to enable them to + appreciate really wise guidance and good governance, the politicians need + not fear mob-law, nor the clergy lament their want of flocks, nor the + capitalists prognosticate the annihilation of the prosperity of the + country. + </p> + <p> + Such is the diversity of opinion upon the why and the wherefore of + education. And my hearers will be prepared to expect that the practical + recommendations which are put forward are not less discordant. There is a + loud cry for compulsory education. We English, in spite of constant + experience to the contrary, preserve a touching faith in the efficacy of + acts of Parliament; and I believe we should have compulsory education in + the courses of next session, if there were the least probability that half + a dozen leading statesmen of different parties would agree what that + education should be. + </p> + <p> + Some hold that education without theology is worse than none. Others + maintain, quite as strongly, that education with theology is in the same + predicament. But this is certain, that those who hold the first opinion + can by no means agree what theology should be taught; and that those who + maintain the second are in a small minority. + </p> + <p> + At any rate "make people learn to read, write, and cipher," say a great + many; and the advice is undoubtedly sensible as far as it goes. But, as + has happened to me in former days, those who, in despair of getting + anything better, advocate this measure, are met with the objection that it + is very like making a child practise the use of a knife, fork, and spoon, + without giving it particle of meat. I really don't know what reply is to + be made to such an objection. + </p> + <p> + But it would be unprofitable to spend more time in disentangling, or + rather in showing up the knots in, the ravelled skeins of our neighbours. + Much more to the purpose is it to ask if we possess any clue of our own + which may guide us among these entanglements. And by way of a beginning, + let us ask ourselves—What is education? Above all things, what is + our ideal of a thoroughly liberal education?—of that education + which, if we could begin life again, we would give ourselves—of that + education which, if we could mould the fates to our own will, we would + give our children? Well, I know not what may be your conceptions upon this + matter, but I will tell you mine, and I hope I shall find that our views + are not very discrepant. + </p> + <p> + Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one + of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a game of + chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty + to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; to have a notion + of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of giving and getting out of + check? Do you not think that we should look with a disapprobation + amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed his son, or the state + which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a + knight? + </p> + <p> + Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the fortune, + and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are + connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a + game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game + which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one + of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chessboard is the + world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game + are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is + hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. + But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes + the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, the + highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity with + which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is + checkmated—without haste, but without remorse. + </p> + <p> + My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which Retzsch + <a href="#linknote-53" name="linknoteref-53" id="linknoteref-53"><small>53</small></a> + has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. Substitute for + the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel who is playing for + love, as we say, and would rather lose than win—and I should accept + it as an image of human life. + </p> + <p> + Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty game. + In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws + of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and their forces, + but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of the + will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws. + For me, education means neither more nor less than this. Anything which + professes to call itself education must be tried by this standard, and if + it fails to stand the test, I will not call it education, whatever may be + the force of authority, or of numbers, upon the other side. + </p> + <p> + It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is no such thing as + an uneducated man. Take an extreme case. Suppose that an adult man, in the + full vigour of his faculties, could be suddenly placed in the world, as + Adam is said to have been, and then left to do as he best might. How long + would he be left uneducated? Not five minutes. Nature would begin to teach + him, through the eye, the ear, the touch, the properties of objects. Pain + and pleasure would be at his elbow telling him to do this and avoid that; + and by slow degrees the man would receive an education which, if narrow, + would be thorough, real, and adequate to his circumstances, though there + would be no extras and very few accomplishments. + </p> + <p> + And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam or, better still, an + Eve, a new and greater world, that of social and moral phenomena, would be + revealed. Joys and woes, compared with which all others might seem but + faint shadows, would spring from the new relations. Happiness and sorrow + would take the place of the coarser monitors, pleasure and pain; but + conduct would still be shaped by the observation of the natural + consequences of actions; or, in other words, by the laws of the nature of + man. + </p> + <p> + To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. And + then, long before we were susceptible of any other modes of instruction, + Nature took us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its + educational influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with + Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross + disobedience. Nor should I speak of this process of education as past for + any one, be he as old as he may. For every man the world is as fresh as it + was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the + eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her patient education of + us in that great university, the universe, of which we are all members—Nature + having no Test-Acts.<a href="#linknote-54" name="linknoteref-54" + id="linknoteref-54"><small>54</small></a> + </p> + <p> + Those who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws which + govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and successful + men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the "Poll,"<a + href="#linknote-55" name="linknoteref-55" id="linknoteref-55"><small>55</small></a> + who pick up just enough to get through without much discredit. Those who + won't learn at all are plucked;<a href="#linknote-56" name="linknoteref-56" + id="linknoteref-56"><small>56</small></a> and then you can't come up + again. Nature's pluck means extermination. + </p> + <p> + Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as Nature is + concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and passed long ago. But, + like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and wasteful in + its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful disobedience—incapacity + meets with the same punishment as crime. Nature's discipline is not even a + word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. It is + left to you to find out why your ears are boxed. + </p> + <p> + The object of what we commonly call education—that education in + which man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial education—is + to make good these defects in Nature's methods; to prepare the child to + receive Nature's education, neither incapably nor ignorantly, nor with + wilful disobedience; and to understand the preliminary symptoms of her + pleasure, without waiting for the box on the ear. In short, all artificial + education ought to be an anticipation of natural education. And a liberal + education is an artificial education which has not only prepared a man to + escape the great evils of disobedience to natural laws, but has trained + him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards, which Nature scatters + with as free a hand as her penalties. + </p> + <p> + That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in + youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease + and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose + intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal + strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be + turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the + anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great + and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one + who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are + trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender + conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of + art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. + </p> + <p> + Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for he + is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will make + the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely; she as + his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious self, her + minister and interpreter. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON A PIECE OF CHALK <a href="#linknote-57" name="linknoteref-57" + id="linknoteref-57"><small>57</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + If a well were sunk at our feet in the midst of the city of Norwich, the + diggers would very soon find themselves at work in that white substance + almost too soft to be called rock, with which we are all familiar as + "chalk." + </p> + <p> + Not only here, but over the whole county of Norfolk, the well-sinker might + carry his shaft down many hundred feet without coming to the end of the + chalk; and, on the sea-coast, where the waves have pared away the face of + the land which breasts them, the scarped faces of the high cliffs are + often wholly formed of the same material. Northward, the chalk may be + followed as far as Yorkshire; on the south coast it appears abruptly in + the picturesque western bays of Dorset, and breaks into the Needles of the + Isle of Wight;<a href="#linknote-58" name="linknoteref-58" + id="linknoteref-58"><small>58</small></a> while on the shores of Kent it + supplies that long line of white cliffs to which England owes her name of + Albion. + </p> + <p> + Were the thin soil which covers it all washed away, a curved band of white + chalk, here broader, and there narrower, might be followed diagonally + across England from Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough Head <a + href="#linknote-59" name="linknoteref-59" id="linknoteref-59"><small>59</small></a> + in Yorkshire—a distance of over two hundred and eighty miles as the + crow flies. + </p> + <p> + From this band to the North Sea, on the east, and the Channel, on the + South, the chalk is largely hidden by other deposits; but, except in the + Weald <a href="#linknote-60" name="linknoteref-60" id="linknoteref-60"><small>60</small></a> + of Kent and Sussex, it enters into the very foundation of all the + south-eastern counties. + </p> + <p> + Attaining, as it does in some places, a thickness of more than a thousand + feet, the English chalk must be admitted to be a mass of considerable + magnitude. Nevertheless, it covers but an insignificant portion of the + whole area occupied by the chalk formation of the globe, which has + precisely the same general characters as ours, and is found in detached + patches, some less, and others more extensive, than the English. + </p> + <p> + Chalk occurs in north-west Ireland; it stretches over a large part of + France,—the chalk which underlies Paris being, in fact, a + continuation of that of the London basin; it runs through Denmark and + Central Europe, and extends southward to North Africa; while eastward, it + appears in the Crimea and in Syria, and may be traced as far as the shores + of the Sea of Aral, in Central Asia. + </p> + <p> + If all the points at which true chalk occurs were circumscribed, they + would lie within an irregular oval about three thousand miles in long + diameter—the area of which would be as great as that of Europe, and + would many times exceed that of the largest existing inland sea—the + Mediterranean. + </p> + <p> + Thus the chalk is no unimportant element in the masonry of the earth's + crust, and it impresses a peculiar stamp, varying with the conditions to + which it is exposed, on the scenery of the districts in which it occurs. + The undulating downs and rounded coombs, covered with sweet-grassed turf, + of our inland chalk country, have a peacefully domestic and + mutton-suggesting prettiness, but can hardly be called either grand or + beautiful. But on our southern coasts, the wall-sided cliffs, many hundred + feet high, with vast needles and pinnacles standing out in the sea, sharp + and solitary enough to serve as perches for the wary cormorant confer a + wonderful beauty and grandeur upon the chalk headlands. And, in the East, + chalk has its share in the formation of some of the most venerable of + mountain ranges, such as the Lebanon. + </p> + <p> + What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and whence + did it come? + </p> + <p> + You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not unnaturally + suppose that the attempt to solve such problems as these can lead to no + result, save that of entangling the inquirer in vague speculations, + incapable of refutation and of verification. + </p> + <p> + If such were really the case, I should have selected some other subject + than a "piece of chalk" for my discourse. But, in truth, after much + deliberation, I have been unable to think of any topic which would so well + enable me to lead you to see how solid is the foundation upon which some + of the most startling conclusions of physical science rest. + </p> + <p> + A great chapter of the history of the world is written in the chalk. Few + passages in the history of man can be supported by such an overwhelming + mass of direct and indirect evidence as that which testifies to the truth + of the fragment of the history of the globe, which I hope to enable you to + read, with your own eyes, tonight. + </p> + <p> + Let me add, that few chapters of human history have a more profound + significance for ourselves. I weigh my words well when I assert, that the + man who should know the true history of the bit of chalk which every + carpenter carries about in his breeches-pocket, though ignorant of all + other history, is likely, if he will think his knowledge out to its + ultimate results, to have a truer, and therefore a better, conception of + this wonderful universe, and of man's relation to it, than the most + learned student who is deep-read in the records of humanity and ignorant + of those of Nature. + </p> + <p> + The language of the chalk is not hard to learn, not nearly so hard as + Latin, if you only want to get at the broad features of the story it has + to tell; and I propose that we now set to work to spell that story out + together. + </p> + <p> + We all know that if we "burn" chalk the result is quicklime. Chalk, in + fact, is a compound of carbonic acid gas, and lime, and when you make it + very hot the carbonic acid flies away and the lime is left. + </p> + <p> + By this method of procedure we see the lime, but we do not see the + carbonic acid. If, on the other hand, you were to powder a little chalk + and drop it into a good deal of strong vinegar, there would be a great + bubbling and fizzing, and, finally, a clear liquid, in which no sign of + chalk would appear. Here you see the carbonic acid in the bubbles; the + lime, dissolved in the vinegar, vanishes from sight. There are a great + many other ways of showing that chalk is essentially nothing but carbonic + acid and quicklime. Chemists enunciate the result of all the experiments + which prove this, by stating that chalk is almost wholly composed of + "carbonate of lime." + </p> + <p> + It is desirable for us to start from the knowledge of this fact, though it + may not seem to help us very far towards what we seek. For carbonate of + lime is a widely spread substance, and is met with under very various + conditions. All sorts of limestones are composed of more or less pure + carbonate of lime. The crust which is often deposited by waters which have + drained through limestone rocks, in the form of what are called + stalagmites and stalactites, is carbonate of lime. Or, to take a more + familiar example, the fur on the inside of a tea-kettle is carbonate of + lime; and, for anything chemistry tells us to the contrary, the chalk + might be a kind of gigantic fur upon the bottom of the earth-kettle, which + is kept pretty hot below. + </p> + <p> + Let us try another method of making the chalk tell us its own history. To + the unassisted eye chalk looks simply like a very loose and open kind of + stone. But it is possible to grind a slice of chalk down so thin that you + can see through it—until it is thin enough, in fact, to be examined + with any magnifying power that may be thought desirable. A thin slice of + the fur of a kettle might be made in the same way. If it were examined + microscopically, it would show itself to be a more or less distinctly + laminated mineral substance and nothing more. + </p> + <p> + But the slice of chalk presents a totally different appearance when placed + under the microscope. The general mass of it is made up of very minute + granules; but, imbedded in this matrix, are innumerable bodies, some + smaller and some larger, but, on a rough average, not more than a + hundredth of an inch in diameter, having a well-defined shape and + structure. A cubic inch of some specimens of chalk may contain hundreds of + thousands of these bodies, compacted together with incalculable millions + of the granules. + </p> + <p> + The examination of a transparent slice gives a good notion of the manner + in which the components of the chalk are arranged, and of their relative + proportions. But, by rubbing up some chalk with a brush in water and then + pouring off the milky fluid, so as to obtain sediments of different + degrees of fineness, the granules and the minute rounded bodies may be + pretty well separated from one another, and submitted to microscopic + examination, either as opaque or as transparent objects. By combining the + views obtained in these various methods, each of the rounded bodies may be + proved to be a beautifully constructed calcareous fabric, made up of a + number of chambers, communicating freely with one another. The chambered + bodies are of various forms. One of the commonest is something like a + badly grown raspberry, being formed of a number of nearly globular + chambers of different sizes congregated together. It is called + Globigerina, and some specimens of chalk consist of little else than + Globigerina and granules. + </p> + <p> + Let us fix our attention upon the Globigerina. It is the spoor of the game + we are tracking. If we can learn what it is and what are the conditions of + its existence, we shall see our way to the origin and past history of the + chalk. + </p> + <p> + A suggestion which may naturally enough present itself is, that these + curious bodies are the result of some process of aggregation which has + taken place in the carbonate of lime; that, just as in winter, the rime on + our windows simulates the most delicate and elegantly arborescent foliage—proving + that the mere mineral water may, under certain conditions, assume the + outward form of organic bodies—so this mineral substance, carbonate + of lime, hidden away in the bowels of the earth, has taken the shape of + these chambered bodies. I am not raising a merely fanciful and unreal + objection. Very learned men, in former days, have even entertained the + notion that all the formed things found in rocks are of this nature; and + if no such conception is at present held to be admissible, it is because + long and varied experience has now shown that mineral matter never does + assume the form and structure we find in fossils. If any one were to try + to persuade you that an oyster-shell (which is also chiefly composed of + carbonate of lime) had crystallized out of sea-water, I suppose you would + laugh at the absurdity. Your laughter would be justified by the fact that + all experience tends to show that oyster-shells are formed by the agency + of oysters, and in no other way. And if there were no better reasons, we + should be justified, on like grounds, in believing that Globigerina is not + the product of anything but vital activity. + </p> + <p> + Happily, however, better evidence in proof of the organic nature of the + Globigerinae than that of analogy is forthcoming. It so happens that + calcareous skeletons, exactly similar to the Globigerinae of the chalk, + are being formed, at the present moment, by minute living creatures, which + flourish in multitudes, literally more numerous than the sands of the + sea-shore, over a large extent of that part of the earth's surface which + is covered by the ocean. + </p> + <p> + The history of the discovery of these living Globigerinae, and of the part + which they play in rock building, is singular enough. It is a discovery + which, like others of no less scientific importance, has arisen, + incidentally, out of work devoted to very different and exceedingly + practical interests. + </p> + <p> + When men first took to the sea, they speedily learned to look out for + shoals and rocks; and the more the burthen of their ships increased, the + more imperatively necessary it became for sailors to ascertain with + precision the depths of the waters they traversed. Out of this necessity + grew the use of the lead and sounding line; and, ultimately, + marine-surveying, which is the recording of the form of coasts and of the + depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-lead, upon charts. + </p> + <p> + At the same time, it became desirable to ascertain and to indicate the + nature of the sea-bottom, since this circumstance greatly affects its + goodness as holding ground for anchors. Some ingenious tar, whose name + deserves a better fate than the oblivion into which it has fallen, + attained this object by "arming" the bottom of the lead with a lump of + grease, to which more or less of the sand or mud, or broken shells, as the + case might be, adhered, and was brought to the surface. But, however well + adapted such an apparatus might be for rough nautical purposes, scientific + accuracy could not be expected from the armed lead, and to remedy its + defects (especially when applied to sounding in great depths) Lieut. + Brooke,<a href="#linknote-61" name="linknoteref-61" id="linknoteref-61"><small>61</small></a> + of the American Navy, some years ago invented a most ingenious machine, by + which a considerable portion of the superficial layer of the sea-bottom + can be scooped out and brought up from any depth to which the lead + descends. + </p> + <p> + In 1853, Lieut. Brooke obtained mud from the bottom of the North Atlantic, + between Newfoundland and the Azores, at a depth of more than ten thousand + feet, or two miles, by the help of this sounding apparatus. The specimens + were sent for examination to Ehrenberg <a href="#linknote-62" + name="linknoteref-62" id="linknoteref-62"><small>62</small></a> of Berlin, + and to Bailey of West Point,<a href="#linknote-63" name="linknoteref-63" + id="linknoteref-63"><small>63</small></a> and those able microscopists + found that this deep-sea mud was almost entirely composed of the skeletons + of living organisms—the greater proportion of these being just like + the Globigerinae already known to occur in the chalk. + </p> + <p> + Thus far, the work had been carried on simply in the interests of science, + but Lieut. Brooke's method of sounding acquired a high commercial value, + when the enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable <a + href="#linknote-64" name="linknoteref-64" id="linknoteref-64"><small>64</small></a> + between this country and the United States was undertaken. For it became a + matter of immense importance to know, not only the depth of the sea over + the whole line along which the cable was to be laid, but the exact nature + of the bottom, so as to guard against chances of cutting or fraying the + strands of that costly rope. The Admiralty consequently ordered Captain + Dayman, an old friend and shipmate of mine, to ascertain the depth over + the whole line of the cable, and to bring back specimens of the bottom. In + former days, such a command as this might have sounded very much like one + of the impossible things which the young prince in the Fairy Tales is + ordered to do before he can obtain the hand of the Princess. However, in + the months of June and July, 1857, my friend performed the task assigned + to him with great expedition and precision without, so far as I know, + having met with any reward of that kind. The specimens of Atlantic mud + which he procured were sent to me to be examined and reported upon.* + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * See Appendix to Captain Dayman's "Deep-sea Soundings in + the North Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland and Newfoundland, + made in H.M.S. Cyclops. Published by order of the Lords + Commissioners of the Admiralty, 1858." They have since + formed the subject of an elaborate Memoir by Messrs. Parker + and Jones, published in the Philosophical Transactions for + 1865. +</pre> + <p> + The result of all these operations is, that we know the contours and the + nature of the surface-soil covered by the North Atlantic, for a distance + of seventeen hundred miles from east to west, as well as we know that of + any part of the dry land. + </p> + <p> + It is a prodigious plain—one of the widest and most even plains in + the world. If the sea were drained off, you might drive a wagon all the + way from Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland, to Trinity Bay, in + Newfoundland. And, except upon one sharp incline about two hundred miles + from Valentia, I am not quite sure that it would even be necessary to put + the skid on, so gentle are the ascents and descents upon that long route. + From Valentia the road would lie down-hill for about 200 miles to the + point at which the bottom is now covered by 1700 fathoms of sea-water. + Then would come the central plain, more than a thousand miles wide, the + inequalities of the surface of which would be hardly perceptible, though + the depth of water upon it now varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet; and + there are places in which Mont Blanc might be sunk without showing its + peak above water. Beyond this, the ascent on the American side commences, + and gradually leads, for about 300 miles, to the Newfoundland shore. + </p> + <p> + Almost the whole of the bottom of this central plain (which extends for + many hundred miles in a north and south direction) is covered by a fine + mud, which, when brought to the surface, dries into a greyish-white + friable substance. You can write with this on a blackboard, if you are so + inclined; and, to the eye, it is quite like very soft, greyish chalk. + Examined chemically, it proves to be composed almost wholly of carbonate + of lime; and if you make a section of it, in the same way as that of the + piece of chalk was made, and view it with the microscope, it presents + innumerable Globigerinae embedded in a granular matrix. + </p> + <p> + Thus this deep-sea mud is substantially chalk. I say substantially, + because there are a good many minor differences; but as these have no + bearing on the question immediately before us,—which is the nature + of the Globigerinae of the chalk,—it is unnecessary to speak of + them. + </p> + <p> + Globigerinae of every size, from the smallest to the largest, are + associated together in the Atlantic mud, and the chambers of many are + filled by a soft animal matter. This soft substance is, in fact, the + remains of the creature to which the Globigerina shell, or rather + skeleton, owes its existence—and which is an animal of the simplest + imaginable description. It is, in fact, a mere particle of living jelly, + without defined parts of any kind—without a mouth, nerves, muscles, + or distinct organs, and only manifesting its vitality to ordinary + observation by thrusting out and retracting from all parts of its surface, + long filamentous processes, which serve for arms and legs. Yet this + amorphous particle, devoid of everything which, in the higher animals, we + call organs, is capable of feeding, growing and multiplying; of separating + from the ocean the small proportion of carbonate of lime which is + dissolved in sea-water; and of building up that substance into a skeleton + for itself, according to a pattern which can be imitated by no other known + agency. + </p> + <p> + The notion that animals can live and flourish in the sea, at the vast + depths from which apparently living Globigerinae have been brought up, + does not agree very well with our usual conceptions respecting the + conditions of animal life; and it is not so absolutely impossible as it + might at first appear to be, that the Globigerinae of the Atlantic + sea-bottom do not live and die where they are found. + </p> + <p> + As I have mentioned, the soundings from the great Atlantic plain are + almost entirely made up of Globigerinae, with the granules which have been + mentioned and some few other calcareous shells; but a small percentage of + the chalky mud—perhaps at most some five per cent of it—is of + a different nature, and consists of shells and skeletons composed of + silex, or pure flint. These silicious bodies belong partly to the lowly + vegetable organisms which are called Diatomaceae, and partly to the + minute, and extremely simple, animals, termed Radiolaria. It is quite + certain that these creatures do not live at the bottom of the ocean, but + at its surface—where they may be obtained in prodigious numbers by + the use of a properly constructed net. Hence it follows that these + silicious organisms, though they are not heavier than the lightest dust, + must have fallen, in some cases, through fifteen thousand feet of water, + before they reached their final resting-place on the ocean floor. And, + considering how large a surface these bodies expose in proportion to their + weight, it is probable that they occupy a great length of time in making + their burial journey from the surface of the Atlantic to the bottom. + </p> + <p> + But if the Radiolaria and Diatoms are thus rained upon the bottom of the + sea, from the superficial layer of its waters in which they pass their + lives, it is obviously possible that the Globigerinae may be similarly + derived; and if they were so, it would be much more easy to understand how + they obtain their supply of food than it is at present. Nevertheless, the + positive and negative evidence all points the other way. The skeletons of + the full-grown, deep-sea Globigerinae are so remarkably solid and heavy in + proportion to their surface as to seem little fitted for floating; and, as + a matter of fact, they are not to be found along with the Diatoms and + Radiolaria, in the uppermost stratum of the open ocean. + </p> + <p> + It has been observed, again, that the abundance of Globigerinae, in + proportion to other organisms, of like kind, increases with the depth of + the sea; and that deep-water Globigerinae are larger than those which live + in shallower parts of the sea; and such facts negative the supposition + that these organisms have been swept by currents from the shallows into + the deeps of the Atlantic. + </p> + <p> + It therefore seems to be hardly doubtful that these wonderful creatures + live and die at the depths in which they are found. + </p> + <p> + However, the important points for us are, that the living Globigerinae are + exclusively marine animals, the skeletons of which abound at the bottom of + deep seas; and that there is not a shadow of reason for believing that the + habits of the Globigerinae of the chalk differed from those of the + existing species. But if this be true, there is no escaping the conclusion + that the chalk itself is the dried mud of an ancient deep sea. + </p> + <p> + In working over the soundings collected by Captain Dayman, I was surprised + to find that many of what I have called the "granules" of that mud, were + not, as one might have been tempted to think at first, the mere powder and + waste of Globigerinae, but that they had a definite form and size. I + termed these bodies "coccoliths," and doubted their organic nature. Dr. + Wallich <a href="#linknote-65" name="linknoteref-65" id="linknoteref-65"><small>65</small></a> + verified my observation, and added the interesting discovery, that, not + unfrequently, bodies similar to these "coccoliths" were aggregated + together into spheroids, which he termed "coccospheres." So far as we + knew, these bodies, the nature of which is extremely puzzling and + problematical, were peculiar to the Atlantic soundings. + </p> + <p> + But, a few years ago, Mr. Sorby,<a href="#linknote-66" + name="linknoteref-66" id="linknoteref-66"><small>66</small></a> in making + a careful examination of the chalk by means of thin sections and + otherwise, observed, as Ehrenberg had done before him, that much of its + granular basis possesses a definite form. Comparing these formed particles + with those in the Atlantic soundings, he found the two to be identical; + and thus proved that the chalk, like the soundings, contains these + mysterious coccoliths and coccospheres. Here was a further and a most + interesting confirmation, from internal evidence, of the essential + identity of the chalk with modern deep-sea mud. Globigerinae, coccoliths, + and coccospheres are round as the chief constituents of both, and testify + to the general similarity of the conditions under which both have been + formed. + </p> + <p> + The evidence furnished by the hewing, facing, and superposition of the + stones of the Pyramids, that these structures were built by men, has no + greater weight than the evidence that the chalk was built by Globigerinae; + and the belief that those ancient pyramid-builders were terrestrial and + air-breathing creatures like ourselves, is it not better based than the + conviction that the chalk-makers lived in the sea? + </p> + <p> + But as our belief in the building of the Pyramids by men is not only + grounded on the internal evidences afforded by these structures, but + gathers strength from multitudinous collateral proofs, and is clinched by + the total absence of any reason for a contrary belief; so the evidence + drawn from the Globigerinae that the chalk is an ancient sea-bottom, is + fortified by innumerable independent lines of evidence; and our belief in + the truth of the conclusion to which all positive testimony tends, + receives the like negative justification from the fact that no other + hypothesis has a shadow of foundation. + </p> + <p> + It may be worth while briefly to consider a few of these collateral proofs + that the chalk was deposited at the bottom of the sea. + </p> + <p> + The great mass of the chalk is composed, as we have seen, of the skeletons + of Globigerinae, and other simple organisms, imbedded in granular matter. + Here and there, however, this hardened mud of the ancient sea reveals the + remains of higher animals which have lived and died, and left their hard + parts in the mud, just as the oysters die and leave their shells behind + them, in the mud of the present seas. + </p> + <p> + There are, at the present day, certain groups of animals which are never + found in fresh waters, being unable to live anywhere but in the sea. Such + are the corals; those corallines which are called Polycoa; those creatures + which fabricate the lamp-shells, and are called Brachiopoda; the pearly + Nautilus, and all animals allied to it; and all the forms of sea-urchins + and star-fishes. + </p> + <p> + Not only are all these creatures confined to salt water at the present + day; but, so far as our records of the past go, the conditions of their + existence have been the same: hence, their occurrence in any deposit is as + strong evidence as can be obtained, that that deposit was formed in the + sea. Now the remains of animals of all the kinds which have been + enumerated, occur in the chalk, in greater or less abundance; while not + one of those forms of shell-fish which are characteristic of fresh water + has yet been observed in it. + </p> + <p> + When we consider that the remains of more than three thousand distinct + species of aquatic animals have been discovered among the fossils of the + chalk, that the great majority of them are of such forms as are now met + with only in the sea, and that there is no reason to believe that any one + of them inhabited fresh water—the collateral evidence that the chalk + represents an ancient sea-bottom acquires as great force as the proof + derived from the nature of the chalk itself. I think you will now allow + that I did not overstate my case when I asserted that we have as strong + grounds for believing that all the vast area of dry land, at present + occupied by the chalk, was once at the bottom of the sea, as we have for + any matter of history whatever; while there is no justification for any + other belief. + </p> + <p> + No less certain it is that the time during which the countries we now call + south-east England, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, + were more or less completely covered by a deep sea, was of considerable + duration. + </p> + <p> + We have already seen that the chalk is, in places, more than a thousand + feet thick. I think you will agree with me, that it must have taken some + time for the skeletons of animalcules of a hundredth of an inch in + diameter to heap up such a mass as that. I have said that throughout the + thickness of the chalk the remains of other animals are scattered. These + remains are often in the most exquisite state of preservation. The valves + of the shell-fishes are commonly adherent; the long spines of some of the + sea-urchins, which would be detached by the smallest jar, often remain in + their places. In a word, it is certain that these animals have lived and + died when the place which they now occupy was the surface of as much of + the chalk as had then been deposited; and that each has been covered up by + the layer of Globigerina mud, upon which the creatures imbedded a little + higher up have, in like manner, lived and died. But some of these remains + prove the existence of reptiles of vast size in the chalk sea. These lived + their time, and had their ancestors and descendants, which assuredly + implies time, reptiles being of slow growth. + </p> + <p> + There is more curious evidence, again, that the process of covering up, + or, in other words, the deposit of Globigerina skeletons, did not go on + very fast. It is demonstrable that an animal of the cretaceous sea might + die, that its skeleton might lie uncovered upon the sea-bottom long enough + to lose all its outward coverings and appendages by putrefaction; and + that, after this had happened, another animal might attach itself to the + dead and naked skeleton, might grow to maturity, and might itself die + before the calcareous mud had buried the whole. + </p> + <p> + Cases of this kind are admirably described by Sir Charles Lyell.<a + href="#linknote-67" name="linknoteref-67" id="linknoteref-67"><small>67</small></a> + He speaks of the frequency with which geologists find in the chalk a + fossilized sea-urchin, to which is attached the lower valve of a Crania. + This is a kind of shell-fish, with a shell composed of two pieces, of + which, as in the oyster, one is fixed and the other free. + </p> + <p> + "The upper valve is almost invariably wanting, though occasionally found + in a perfect state of preservation in the white chalk at some distance. In + this case, we see clearly that the sea-urchin first lived from youth to + age, then died and lost its spines, which were carried away. Then the + young Crania adhered to the bared shell, grew and perished in its turn; + after which, the upper valve was separated from the lower, before the + Echinus <a href="#linknote-68" name="linknoteref-68" id="linknoteref-68"><small>68</small></a> + became enveloped in chalky mud." + </p> + <p> + A specimen in the Museum of Practical Geology, in London, still further + prolongs the period which must have elapsed between the death of the + sea-urchin, and its burial by the Globigerinae. For the outward face of + the valve of a Crania, which is attached to a sea-urchin (Micraster), is + itself overrun by an incrusting coralline, which spreads thence over more + or less of the surface of the sea-urchin. It follows that, after the upper + valve of the Crania fell off, the surface of the attached valve must have + remained exposed long enough to allow of the growth of the whole + corraline, since corallines do not live imbedded in mud. + </p> + <p> + The progress of knowledge may, one day, enable us to deduce from such + facts as these the maximum rate at which the chalk can have accumulated, + and thus to arrive at the minimum duration of the chalk period. Suppose + that the valve of the Crania upon which a coralline has fixed itself in + the way just described, is so attached to the sea-urchin that no part of + it is more than an inch above the face upon which the sea-urchin rests. + Then, as the coralline could not have fixed itself, if the Crania had been + covered up with chalk mud, and could not have lived had itself been so + covered it follows, that an inch of chalk mud could not have accumulated + within the time between the death and decay of the soft parts of the + sea-urchin and the growth of the coralline to the full size which it has + attained. If the decay of the soft parts of the sea-urchin; the + attachment, growth to maturity, and decay of the Crania; and the + subsequent attachment and growth of the coralline, took a year (which is a + low estimate enough), the accumulation of the inch of chalk must have + taken more than a year: and the deposit of a thousand feet of chalk must, + consequently, have taken more than twelve thousand years. + </p> + <p> + The foundation of all this calculation is, of course, a knowledge of the + length of time the Crania and the coralline needed to attain their full + size; and, on this head, precise knowledge is at present wanting. But + there are circumstances which tend to show, that nothing like an inch of + chalk has accumulated during the life of a Crania; and, on any probable + estimate of the length of that life, the chalk period must have had a much + longer duration than that thus roughly assigned to it. + </p> + <p> + Thus, not only is it certain that the chalk is the mud of an ancient + sea-bottom; but it is no less certain, that the chalk sea existed during + an extremely long period, though we may not be prepared to give a precise + estimate of the length of that period in years. The relative duration is + clear, though the absolute duration may not be definable. The attempt to + affix any precise date to the period at which the chalk sea began, or + ended, its existence, is baffled by difficulties of the same kind. But the + relative age of the cretaceous epoch may be determined with as great ease + and certainty as the long duration of that epoch. + </p> + <p> + You will have heard of the interesting discoveries recently made, in + various parts of Western Europe, of flint implements, obviously worked + into shape by human hands, under circumstances which show conclusively + that man is a very ancient denizen of these regions. + </p> + <p> + It has been proved that the old populations of Europe, whose existence has + been revealed to us in this way, consisted of savages, such as the + Esquimaux are now; that, in the country which is now France, they hunted + the reindeer, and were familiar with the ways of the mammoth and the + bison. The physical geography of France was in those days different from + what it is now—the river Somme,<a href="#linknote-69" + name="linknoteref-69" id="linknoteref-69"><small>69</small></a> for + instance, having cut its bed a hundred feet deeper between that time and + this; and, it is probable, that the climate was more like that of Canada + or Siberia, than that of Western Europe. + </p> + <p> + The existence of these people is forgotten even in the traditions of the + oldest historical nations. The name and fame of them had utterly vanished + until a few years back; and the amount of physical change which has been + effected since their day, renders it more than probable that, venerable as + are some of the historical nations, the workers of the chipped flints of + Hoxne or of Amiens <a href="#linknote-70" name="linknoteref-70" + id="linknoteref-70"><small>70</small></a> are to them, as they are to us, + in point of antiquity. + </p> + <p> + But, if we assign to these hoar relics of long-vanished generations of men + the greatest age that can possibly be claimed for them, they are not older + than the drift, or boulder clay, which, in comparison with the chalk, is + but a very juvenile deposit. You need go no further than your own + sea-board for evidence of this fact. At one of the most charming spots on + the coast of Norfolk, Cromer, you will see the boulder clay forming a vast + mass, which lies upon the chalk, and must consequently have come into + existence after it. Huge boulders of chalk are, in fact, included in the + clay, and have evidently been brought to the position they now occupy, by + the same agency as that which has planted blocks of syenite from Norway + side by side with them. + </p> + <p> + The chalk, then, is certainly older than the boulder clay. If you ask how + much, I will again take you no further than the same spot upon your own + coasts for evidence. I have spoken of the boulder clay and drift as + resting upon the chalk. That is not strictly true. Interposed between the + chalk and the drift is a comparatively insignificant layer, containing + vegetable matter. But that layer tells a wonderful history. It is full of + stumps of trees standing as they grew. Fir-trees are there with their + cones, and hazel-bushes with their nuts; there stand the stools of oak and + yew trees, beeches and alders. Hence this stratum is appropriately called + the "forest-bed." + </p> + <p> + It is obvious that the chalk must have been up-heaved and converted into + dry land, before the timber trees could grow upon it. As the boles of some + of these trees are from two to three feet in diameter, it is no less clear + that the dry land this formed remained in the same condition for long + ages. And not only do the remains of stately oaks and well-grown firs + testify to the duration of this condition of things, but additional + evidence to the same effect is afforded by the abundant remains of + elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotomuses and other great wild beasts, which + it has yielded to the zealous search of such men as the Rev. Mr. Gunn.<a + href="#linknote-71" name="linknoteref-71" id="linknoteref-71"><small>71</small></a> + </p> + <p> + When you look at such a collection as he has formed, and bethink you that + these elephantine bones did veritably carry their owners about, and these + great grinders crunch, in the dark woods of which the forest-bed is now + the only trace, it is impossible not to feel that they are as good + evidence of the lapse of time as the annual rings of the tree-stumps. + </p> + <p> + Thus there is a writing upon the walls of cliffs at Cromer, and whoso runs + may read it. It tells us, with an authority which cannot be impeached, + that the ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and remained dry + land, until it was covered with forest, stocked with the great game whose + spoils have rejoiced your geologists. How long it remained in that + condition cannot be said; but "the whirligig of time <a href="#linknote-72" + name="linknoteref-72" id="linknoteref-72"><small>72</small></a> brought + its revenges" in those days as in these. That dry land, with the bones and + teeth of generations of long-lived elephants, hidden away among the + gnarled roots and dry leaves of its ancient trees, sank gradually to the + bottom of the icy sea, which covered it with huge masses of drift and + boulder clay. Sea-beasts, such as the walrus, now restricted to the + extreme north, paddled about where birds had twittered among the topmost + twigs of the fir-trees. How long this state of things endured we know not, + but at length it came to an end. The upheaved glacial mud hardened into + the soil of modern Norfolk. Forests grew once more, the wolf and the + beaver replaced the reindeer and the elephant; and at length what we call + the history of England dawned. + </p> + <p> + Thus you have within the limits of your own county, proof that the chalk + can justly claim a very much greater antiquity than even the oldest + physical traces of mankind. But we may go further and demonstrate, by + evidence of the same authority as that which testifies to the existence of + the father of men, that the chalk is vastly older than Adam himself. + </p> + <p> + The Book of Genesis informs us that Adam, immediately upon his creation, + and before the appearance of Eve, was placed in the Garden of Eden. The + problem of the geographical position of Eden has greatly vexed the spirits + of the learned in such matters, but there is one point respecting which, + so far as I know, no commentator has ever raised a doubt. This is, that of + the four rivers which are said to run out of it, Euphrates and Hiddekel <a + href="#linknote-73" name="linknoteref-73" id="linknoteref-73"><small>73</small></a> + are identical with the rivers now known by the names of Euphrates and + Tigris. + </p> + <p> + But the whole country in which these mighty rivers take their origin, and + through which they run, is composed of rocks which are either of the same + age as the chalk, or of later date. So that the chalk must not only have + been formed, but, after its formation, the time required for the deposit + of these later rocks, and for their upheaval into dry land, must have + elapsed, before the smallest brook which feeds the swift stream of "the + great river, the river of Babylon,"<a href="#linknote-74" + name="linknoteref-74" id="linknoteref-74"><small>74</small></a> began to + flow. + </p> + <p> + Thus, evidence which cannot be rebutted, and which need not be + strengthened, though if time permitted I might indefinitely increase its + quantity, compels you to believe that the earth, from the time of the + chalk to the present day, has been the theatre of a series of changes as + vast in their amount, as they were slow in their progress. The area on + which we stand has been first sea and then land, for at least four + alternations; and has remained in each of these conditions for a period of + great length. + </p> + <p> + Nor have these wonderful metamorphoses of sea into land, and of land into + sea, been confined to one corner of England. During the chalk period, or + "cretaceous epoch," not one of the present great physical features of the + globe was in existence. Our great mountain ranges, Pyrenees, Alps, + Himalayas, Andes, have all been upheaved since the chalk was deposited, + and the cretaceous sea flowed over the sites of Sinai and Ararat. + </p> + <p> + All this is certain, because rocks of cretaceous, or still later, date + have shared in the elevatory movements which gave rise to these mountain + chains; and may be found perched up, in some cases, many thousand feet + high upon their flanks. And evidence of equal cogency demonstrates that, + though, in Norfolk, the forest-bed rests directly upon the chalk, yet it + does so, not because the period at which the forest grew immediately + followed that at which the chalk was formed, but because an immense lapse + of time, represented elsewhere by thousands of feet of rock, is not + indicated at Cromer. + </p> + <p> + I must ask you to believe that there is no less conclusive proof that a + still more prolonged succession of similar changes occurred, before the + chalk was deposited. Nor have we any reason to think that the first term + in the series of these changes is known. The oldest sea-beds preserved to + us are sands, and mud, and pebbles, the wear and tear of rocks which were + formed in still older oceans. + </p> + <p> + But, great as is the magnitude of these physical changes of the world, + they have been accompanied by a no less striking series of modifications + in its living inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + All the great classes of animals, beasts of the field, fowls of the air, + creeping things, and things which dwell in the waters, flourished upon the + globe long ages before the chalk was deposited. Very few, however, if any, + of these ancient forms of animal life were identical with those which now + live. Certainly not one of the higher animals was of the same species as + any of those now in existence. The beasts of the field, in the days before + the chalk, were not our beasts of the field, nor the fowls of the air such + as those which the eye of men has seen flying, unless his antiquity dates + infinitely further back than we at present surmise. If we could be carried + back into those times, we should be as one suddenly set down in Australia + before it was colonized. We should see mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, + insects, snails, and the like, clearly recognisable as such, and yet not + one of them would be just the same as those with which we are familiar, + and many would be extremely different. + </p> + <p> + From that time to the present, the population of the world has undergone + slow and gradual, but incessant changes. There has been no grand + catastrophe—no destroyer has swept away the forms of life of one + period, and replaced them by a totally new creation; but one species has + vanished and another has taken its place; creatures of one type of + structure have diminished, those of another have increased, as time has + passed on. And thus, while the differences between the living creatures of + the time before the chalk and those of the present day appear startling, + if placed side by side, we are led from one to the other by the most + gradual progress, if we follow the course of Nature through the whole + series of those relics of her operations which she has left behind. + </p> + <p> + And it is by the population of the chalk sea that the ancient and the + modern inhabitants of the world are most completely connected. The groups + which are dying out flourish, side by side, with the groups which are now + the dominant forms of life. + </p> + <p> + Thus the chalk contains remains of those strange flying and swimming + reptiles, the pterodactyl, the ichthyosaurus, and the plesiosaurus, which + are found in no later deposits, but abounded in preceding ages. The + chambered shells called ammonites and belemnites, which are so + characteristic of the period preceding the cretaceous, in like manner die + with it. + </p> + <p> + But, amongst these fading remainders of a previous state of things, are + some very modern forms of life, looking like Yankee pedlars among a tribe + of Red Indians. Crocodiles of modern type appear; bony fishes, many of + them very similar to existing species almost supplant the forms of fish + which predominate in more ancient seas; and many kinds of living shellfish + first become known to us in the chalk. The vegetation acquires a modern + aspect. A few living animals are not even distinguishable as species, from + those which existed at that remote epoch. The Globigerina of the present + day, for example, is not different specifically from that of the chalk; + and the same may be said of many other Foraminifera. I think it probable + that critical and unprejudiced examination will show that more than one + species of much higher animals have had a similar longevity; but the only + example, which I can at present give confidently is the snake's-head + lamp-shell (Terebratulina caput serpentis), which lives in our English + seas and abounded (as Terebratulina striata of authors) in the chalk. + </p> + <p> + The longest line of human ancestry must hide its diminished head before + the pedigree of this insignificant shell-fish. We Englishmen are proud to + have an ancestor who was present at the Battle of Hastings. The ancestors + of Terebratulina caput serpentis may have been present at a battle of + Ichthyosauria in that part of the sea which, when the chalk was forming, + flowed over the site of Hastings. While all around has changed, this + Terebratulina has peacefully propagated its species from generation to + generation, and stands to this day, as a living testimony to the + continuity of the present with the past history of the globe. + </p> + <p> + Up to this moment I have stated, so far as I know, nothing but + well-authenticated facts, and the immediate conclusions which they force + upon the mind. + </p> + <p> + But the mind is so constituted that it does not willingly rest in facts + and immediate causes, but seeks always after a knowledge of the remoter + links in the chain of causation. + </p> + <p> + Taking the many changes of any given spot of the earth's surface, from sea + to land and from land to sea, as an established fact, we cannot refrain + from asking ourselves how these changes have occurred. And when we have + explained them—as they must be explained—by the alternate slow + movements of elevation and depression which have affected the crust of the + earth, we go still further back, and ask, Why these movements? + </p> + <p> + I am not certain that any one can give you a satisfactory answer to that + question. Assuredly I cannot. All that can be said, for certain, is, that + such movements are part of the ordinary course of nature, inasmuch as they + are going on at the present time. Direct proof may be given, that some + parts of the land of the northern hemisphere are at this moment insensibly + rising and others insensibly sinking; and there is indirect, but perfectly + satisfactory, proof, that an enormous area now covered by the Pacific has + been deepened thousands of feet, since the present inhabitants of that sea + came into existence. + </p> + <p> + Thus there is not a shadow of a reason for believing that the physical + changes of the globe, in past times have been effected by other than + natural causes. + </p> + <p> + Is there any more reason for believing that the concomitant modifications + in the forms of the living inhabitants of the globe have been brought + about in other ways? + </p> + <p> + Before attempting to answer this question, let us try to form a distinct + mental picture of what has happened, in some special case. + </p> + <p> + The crocodiles are animals which, as a group, have a very vast antiquity. + They abounded ages before the chalk was deposited; they throng the rivers + in warm climates, at the present day. There is a difference in the form of + the joints of the back-bone, and in some minor particulars, between the + crocodiles of the present epoch and those which lived before the chalk; + but in the cretaceous epoch, as I have already mentioned, the crocodiles + had assumed the modern type of structure. Notwithstanding this, the + crocodiles of the chalk are not identically the same as those which lived + in the times called "older tertiary," which succeeded the cretaceous + epoch; and the crocodiles of the older tertiaries are not identical with + those of the newer tertiaries, nor are these identical with existing + forms. I leave open the question whether particular species may have lived + on from epoch to epoch. But each epoch has had its peculiar crocodiles; + though all, since the chalk, have belonged to the modern type, and differ + simply in their proportions, and in such structural particulars as are + discernible only to trained eyes. + </p> + <p> + How is the existence of this long succession of different species of + crocodiles to be accounted for? + </p> + <p> + Only two suppositions seem to be open to us—Either each species of + crocodile has been specially created, or it has arisen out of some + pre-existing form by the operation of natural causes. + </p> + <p> + Choose your hypothesis; I have chosen mine. I can find no warranty for + believing in the distinct creation of a score of successive species of + crocodiles in the course of countless ages of time. Science gives no + countenance to such a wild fancy; nor can even the perverse ingenuity of a + commentator pretend to discover this sense, in the simple words in which + the writer of Genesis records the proceedings of the fifth and sixth days + of the Creation. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, I see no good reason for doubting the necessary + alternative, that all these varied species have been evolved from + pre-existing crocodilian forms, by the operation of causes as completely a + part of the common order of nature, as those which have effected the + changes of the inorganic world. + </p> + <p> + Few will venture to affirm that the reasoning which applies to crocodiles + loses its force among other animals, or among plants. If one series of + species has come into existence by the operation of natural causes, it + seems folly to deny that all may have arisen in the same way. + </p> + <p> + A small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I were to put the bit + of chalk with which we started into the hot but obscure flame of burning + hydrogen, it would presently shine like the sun. It seems to me that this + physical metamorphosis is no false image of what has been the result of + our subjecting it to a jet of fervent, though nowise brilliant, thought + to-night. It has become luminous, and its clear rays, penetrating the + abyss of the remote past, have brought within our ken some stages of the + evolution of the earth. And in the shifting "without haste, but without + rest"<a href="#linknote-75" name="linknoteref-75" id="linknoteref-75"><small>75</small></a> + of the land and sea, as in the endless variation of the forms assumed by + living beings, we have observed nothing but the natural product of the + forces originally possessed by the substance of the universe. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION <a href="#linknote-76" + name="linknoteref-76" id="linknoteref-76"><small>76</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + I know quite well that launching myself into this discussion <a + href="#linknote-77" name="linknoteref-77" id="linknoteref-77"><small>77</small></a> + is a very dangerous operation; that it is a very large subject, and one + which is difficult to deal with, however much I may trespass upon your + patience in the time allotted to me. But the discussion is so fundamental, + it is so completely impossible to make up one's mind on these matters + until one has settled the question, that I will even venture to make the + experiment. A great lawyer-statesman and philosopher of a former age—I + mean Francis Bacon <a href="#linknote-78" name="linknoteref-78" + id="linknoteref-78"><small>78</small></a>—said that truth came out + of error much more rapidly than it came out of confusion. There is a + wonderful truth in that saying. Next to being right in this world, the + best of all things is to be clearly and definitely wrong, because you will + come out somewhere. If you go buzzing about between right and wrong, + vibrating and fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are absolutely + and thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some of these days, have + the extreme good fortune of knocking your head against a fact, and that + sets you all straight again. So I will not trouble myself as to whether I + may be right or wrong in what I am about to say, but at any rate I hope to + be clear and definite; and then you will be able to judge for yourselves + whether, in following out the train of thought I have to introduce, you + knock your heads against facts or not. + </p> + <p> + I take it that the whole object of education is, in the first place, to + train the faculties of the young in such a manner as to give their + possessors the best chance of being happy <a href="#linknote-79" + name="linknoteref-79" id="linknoteref-79"><small>79</small></a> and useful + in their generation; and, in the second place, to furnish them with the + most important portions of that immense capitalised experience of the + human race which we call knowledge of various kinds. I am using the term + knowledge in its widest possible sense; and the question is, what subjects + to select by training and discipline, in which the object I have just + defined may be best attained. + </p> + <p> + I must call your attention further to this fact, that all the subjects of + our thoughts—all feelings and propositions (leaving aside our + sensations as the mere materials and occasions of thinking and feeling), + all our mental furniture—may be classified under one of two heads—as + either within the province of the intellect, something that can be put + into propositions and affirmed or denied; or as within the province of + feeling, or that which, before the name was defiled, was called the + aesthetic side of our nature, and which can neither be proved nor + disproved, but only felt and known. + </p> + <p> + According to the classification which I have put before you, then, the + subjects of all knowledge are divisible into the two groups, matters of + science and matters of art; for all things with which the reasoning + faculty alone is occupied, come under the province of science; and in the + broadest sense, and not in the narrow and technical sense in which we are + now accustomed to use the word art, all things feelable, all things which + stir our emotions, come under the term of art, in the sense of the + subject-matter of the aesthetic faculty. So that we are shut up to this—that + the business of education is, in the first place, to provide the young + with the means and the habit of observation; and, secondly, to supply the + subject-matter of knowledge either in the shape of science or of art, or + of both combined. + </p> + <p> + Now, it is a very remarkable fact—but it is true of most things in + this world—that there is hardly anything one-sided, or of one + nature; and it is not immediately obvious what of the things that interest + us may be regarded as pure science, and what may be regarded as pure art. + It may be that there are some peculiarly constituted persons who, before + they have advanced far into the depths of geometry, find artistic beauty + about it; but, taking the generality of mankind, I think it may be said + that, when they begin to learn mathematics, their whole souls are absorbed + in tracing the connection between the premisses and the conclusion, and + that to them geometry is pure science. So I think it may be said that + mechanics and osteology are pure science. On the other hand, melody in + music is pure art. You cannot reason about it; there is no proposition + involved in it. So, again, in the pictorial art, an arabesque, or a + "harmony in grey,"<a href="#linknote-80" name="linknoteref-80" + id="linknoteref-80"><small>80</small></a> touches none but the aesthetic + faculty. But a great mathematician, and even many persons who are not + great mathematicians, will tell you that they derive immense pleasure from + geometrical reasonings. Everybody knows mathematicians speak of solutions + and problems as "elegant," and they tell you that a certain mass of mystic + symbols is "beautiful, quite lovely." Well, you do not see it. They do see + it, because the intellectual process, the process of comprehending the + reasons symbolised by these figures and these signs, confers upon them a + sort of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual symmetry. Take a science + of which I may speak with more confidence, and which is the most + attractive of those I am concerned with. It is what we call morphology, + which consists in tracing out the unity in variety of the infinitely + diversified structures of animals and plants. I cannot give you any + example of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely real than a + pleasure of this kind—the pleasure which arises in one's mind when a + whole mass of different structures run into one harmony as the expression + of a central law. That is where the province of art overlays and embraces + the province of intellect. And, if I may venture to express an opinion on + such a subject, the great majority of forms of art are not in the sense + what I just now defined them to be—pure art; but they derive much of + their quality from simultaneous and even unconscious excitement of the + intellect. + </p> + <p> + When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so now; and it so + happened that I had the opportunity of hearing much good music. Among + other things, I had abundant opportunities of hearing that great old + master, Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well—though I knew + nothing about music then, and, I may add, know nothing whatever about it + now—the intense satisfaction and delight which I had in listening, + by the hour together, to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure which remains + with me, I am glad to think; but, of late years, I have tried to find out + the why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me that the pleasure + derived from musical compositions of this kind is essentially of the same + nature as that which is derived from pursuits which are commonly regarded + as purely intellectual. I mean, that the source of pleasure is exactly the + same as in most of my problems in morphology—that you have the theme + in one of the old master's works followed out in all its endless + variations, always appearing and always reminding you of unity in variety. + So in painting; what is called "truth to nature" is the intellectual + element coming in, and truth to nature depends entirely upon the + intellectual culture of the person to whom art is addressed. If you are in + Australia, you may get credit for being a good artist—I mean among + the natives—if you can draw a kangaroo after a fashion. But, among + men of higher civilisation, the intellectual knowledge we possess brings + its criticism into our appreciation of works of art, and we are obliged to + satisfy it, as well as the mere sense of beauty in colour and in outline. + And so, the higher the culture and information of those whom art + addresses, the more exact and precise must be what we call its "truth to + nature." + </p> + <p> + If we turn to literature, the same thing is true, and you find works of + literature which may be said to be pure art. A little song of Shakespeare + or of Goethe is pure art; it is exquisitely beautiful, although its + intellectual content may be nothing. A series of pictures is made to pass + before your mind by the meaning of words, and the effect is a melody of + ideas. Nevertheless, the great mass of the literature we esteem is valued, + not merely because of having artistic form, but because of its + intellectual content; and the value is the higher the more precise, + distinct, and true is that intellectual content. And, if you will let me + for a moment speak of the very highest forms of literature, do we not + regard them as highest simply because the more we know the truer they + seem, and the more competent we are to appreciate beauty the more + beautiful they are? No man ever understands Shakespeare until he is old, + though the youngest may admire him, the reason being that he satisfies the + artistic instinct of the youngest and harmonises with the ripest and + richest experience of the oldest. + </p> + <p> + I have said this much to draw your attention to what, in my mind, lies at + the root of all this matter, and at the understanding of one another by + the men of science on the one hand, and the men of literature, and + history, and art, on the other. It is not a question whether one order of + study or another should predominate. It is a question of what topics of + education you shall select which will combine all the needful elements in + such due proportion as to give the greatest amount of food, support, and + encouragement to those faculties which enable us to appreciate truth, and + to profit by those sources of innocent happiness which are open to us, + and, at the same time, to avoid that which is bad, and coarse, and ugly, + and keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls and dangers which beset those + who break through the natural or moral laws. + </p> + <p> + I address myself, in this spirit, to the consideration of the question of + the value of purely literary education. Is it good and sufficient, or is + it insufficient and bad? Well, here I venture to say that there are + literary educations and literary educations. If I am to understand by that + term the education that was current in the great majority of middle-class + schools, and upper schools too, in this country when I was a boy, and + which consisted absolutely and almost entirely in keeping boys for eight + or ten years at learning the rules of Latin and Greek grammar, construing + certain Latin and Greek authors, and possibly making verses which, had + they been English verses, would have been condemned as abominable + doggerel,—if that is what you mean by liberal education, then I say + it is scandalously insufficient and almost worthless. My reason for saying + so is not from the point of view of science at all, but from the point of + view of literature. I say the thing professes to be literary education + that is not a literary education at all. It was not literature at all that + was taught, but science in a very bad form. It is quite obvious that + grammar is science and not literature. The analysis of a text by the help + of the rules of grammar is just as much a scientific operation as the + analysis of a chemical compound by the help of the rules of chemical + analysis. There is nothing that appeals to the aesthetic faculty in that + operation; and I ask multitudes of men of my own age, who went through + this process, whether they ever had a conception of art or literature + until they obtained it for themselves after leaving school? Then you may + say, "If that is so, if the education was scientific, why cannot you be + satisfied with it?" I say, because although it is a scientific training, + it is of the most inadequate and inappropriate kind. If there is any good + at all in scientific education it is that men should be trained, as I said + before, to know things for themselves at first hand, and that they should + understand every step of the reason of that which they do. + </p> + <p> + I desire to speak with the utmost respect of that science—philology—of + which grammar is a part and parcel; yet everybody knows that grammar, as + it is usually learned at school, affords no scientific training. It is + taught just as you would teach the rules of chess or draughts. On the + other hand, if I am to understand by a literary education the study of the + literatures of either ancient or modern nations—but especially those + of antiquity, and especially that of ancient Greece; if this literature is + studied, not merely from the point of view of philological science, and + its practical application to the interpretation of texts, but as an + exemplification of and commentary upon the principles of art; if you look + upon the literature of a people as a chapter in the development of the + human mind, if you work out this in a broad spirit, and with such + collateral references to morals and politics, and physical geography, and + the like as are needful to make you comprehend what the meaning of ancient + literature and civilisation is,—then, assuredly, it affords a + splendid and noble education. But I still think it is susceptible of + improvement, and that no man will ever comprehend the real secret of the + difference between the ancient world and our present time, unless he has + learned to see the difference which the late development of physical + science has made between the thought of this day and the thought of that, + and he will never see that difference, unless he has some practical + insight into some branches of physical science; and you must remember that + a literary education such as that which I have just referred to, is out of + the reach of those whose school life is cut short at sixteen or seventeen. + </p> + <p> + But, you will say, all this is fault-finding; let us hear what you have in + the way of positive suggestion. Then I am bound to tell you that, if I + could make a clean sweep of everything—I am very glad I cannot + because I might, and probably should, make mistakes,—but if I could + make a clean sweep of everything and start afresh, I should, in the first + place, secure that training of the young in reading and writing, and in + the habit of attention and observation, both to that which is told them, + and that which they see, which everybody agrees to. But in addition to + that, I should make it absolutely necessary for everybody, for a longer or + shorter period, to learn to draw. Now, you may say, there are some people + who cannot draw, however much they may be taught. I deny that in toto, + because I never yet met with anybody who could not learn to write. Writing + is a form of drawing; therefore if you give the same attention and trouble + to drawing as you do to writing, depend upon it, there is nobody who + cannot be made to draw, more or less well. Do not misapprehend me. I do + not say for one moment you would make an artistic draughtsman. Artists are + not made; they grow. You may improve the natural faculty in that + direction, but you cannot make it; but you can teach simple drawing, and + you will find it an implement of learning of extreme value. I do not think + its value can be exaggerated, because it gives you the means of training + the young in attention and accuracy, which are the two things in which all + mankind are more deficient than in any other mental quality whatever. The + whole of my life has been spent in trying to give my proper attention to + things and to be accurate, and I have not succeeded as well as I could + wish; and other people, I am afraid, are not much more fortunate. You + cannot begin this habit too early, and I consider there is nothing of so + great a value as the habit of drawing, to secure those two desirable ends. + </p> + <p> + Then we come to the subject-matter, whether scientific or aesthetic, of + education, and I should naturally have no question at all about teaching + the elements of physical science of the kind I have sketched, in a + practical manner; but among scientific topics, using the word scientific + in the broadest sense, I would also include the elements of the theory of + morals and of that of political and social life, which, strangely enough, + it never seems to occur to anybody to teach a child. I would have the + history of our own country, and of all the influences which have been + brought to bear upon it, with incidental geography, not as a mere + chronicle of reigns and battles, but as a chapter in the development of + the race, and the history of civilisation. + </p> + <p> + Then with respect to aesthetic knowledge and discipline, we have happily + in the English language one of the most magnificent storehouses of + artistic beauty and of models of literary excellence which exists in the + world at the present time. I have said before, and I repeat it here, that + if a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out of his Bible, + and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes,<a href="#linknote-81" + name="linknoteref-81" id="linknoteref-81"><small>81</small></a> and Bishop + Berkeley,<a href="#linknote-82" name="linknoteref-82" id="linknoteref-82"><small>82</small></a> + to mention only a few of our illustrious writers—I say, if he cannot + get it out of those writers he cannot get it out of anything; and I would + assuredly devote a very large portion of the time of every English child + to the careful study of the models of English writing of such varied and + wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is still more important and still + more neglected, the habit of using that language with precision, with + force, and with art. I fancy we are almost the only nation in the world + who seem to think that composition comes by nature. The French attend to + their own language, the Germans study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem + to think it is worth their while. Nor would I fail to include, in the + course of study I am sketching, translations of all the best works of + antiquity, or of the modern world. It is a very desirable thing to read + Homer in Greek; but if you don't happen to know Greek, the next best thing + we can do is to read as good a translation of it as we have recently been + furnished with in prose.<a href="#linknote-83" name="linknoteref-83" + id="linknoteref-83"><small>83</small></a> You won't get all you would get + from the original, but you may get a great deal; and to refuse to know + this great deal because you cannot get all, seems to be as sensible as for + a hungry man to refuse bread because he cannot get partridge. Finally, I + would add instruction in either music or painting, or, if the child should + be so unhappy, as sometimes happens, as to have no faculty for either of + those, and no possibility of doing anything in any artistic sense with + them, then I would see what could be done with literature alone; but I + would provide, in the fullest sense, for the development of the aesthetic + side of the mind. In my judgment, those are all the essentials of + education for an English child. With that outfit, such as it might be made + in the time given to education which is within the reach of nine-tenths of + the population—with that outfit, an Englishman, within the limits of + English life, is fitted to go anywhere, to occupy the highest positions, + to fill the highest offices of the State, and to become distinguished in + practical pursuits, in science, or in art. For, if he have the opportunity + to learn all those things, and have his mind disciplined in the various + directions the teaching of those topics would have necessitated, then, + assuredly, he will be able to pick up, on his road through life, all the + rest of the intellectual baggage he wants. + </p> + <p> + If the educational time at our disposition were sufficient, there are one + or two things I would add to those I have just now called the essentials; + and perhaps you will be surprised to hear, though I hope you will not, + that I should add, not more science, but one, or, if possible, two + languages. The knowledge of some other language than one's own is, in + fact, of singular intellectual value. Many of the faults and mistakes of + the ancient philosophers are traceable to the fact that they knew no + language but their own, and were often led into confusing the symbol with + the thought which it embodied. I think it is Locke <a href="#linknote-84" + name="linknoteref-84" id="linknoteref-84"><small>84</small></a> who says + that one-half of the mistakes of philosophers have arisen from questions + about words; and one of the safest ways of delivering yourself from the + bondage of words is, to know how ideas look in words to which you are not + accustomed. That is one reason for the study of language; another reason + is, that it opens new fields in art and in science. Another is the + practical value of such knowledge; and yet another is this, that if your + languages are properly chosen, from the time of learning the additional + languages you will know your own language better than ever you did. So, I + say, if the time given to education permits, add Latin and German. Latin, + because it is the key to nearly one-half of English and to all the Romance + languages; and German, because it is the key to almost all the remainder + of English, and helps you to understand a race from whom most of us have + sprung, and who have a character and a literature of a fateful force in + the history of the world, such as probably has been allotted to those of + no other people, except the Jews, the Greeks, and ourselves. Beyond these, + the essential and the eminently desirable elements of all education, let + each man take up his special line—the historian devote himself to + his history, the man of science to his science, the man of letters to his + culture of that kind, and the artist to his special pursuit. + </p> + <p> + Bacon has prefaced some of his works with no more than this: Franciscus + Bacon sic cogitavit;<a href="#linknote-85" name="linknoteref-85" + id="linknoteref-85"><small>85</small></a> let "sic cogitavi" be the + epilogue to what I have ventured to address to you to-night. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION <a href="#linknote-86" + name="linknoteref-86" id="linknoteref-86"><small>86</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of + the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode at + which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and exact. There + is no more difference, but there is just the same kind of difference, + between the mental operations of a man of science and those of an ordinary + person, as there is between the operations and methods of a baker or of a + butcher weighing out his goods in common scales, and the operations of a + chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis by means of his + balance and finely graduated weights. It is not that the action of the + scales in the one case, and the balance in the other, differ in the + principles of their construction or manner of working; but the beam of one + is set on an infinitely finer axis than the other, and of course turns by + the addition of a much smaller weight. + </p> + <p> + You will understand this better, perhaps, if I give you some familiar + example. You have all heard it repeated, I dare say, that men of science + work by means of induction and deduction, and that by the help of these + operations, they, in a sort of sense, wring from Nature certain other + things, which are called natural laws, and causes, and that out of these, + by some cunning skill of their own, they build up hypotheses and theories. + And it is imagined by many, that the operations of the common mind can be + by no means compared with these processes, and that they have to be + acquired by a sort of special apprenticeship to the craft. To hear all + these large words, you would think that the mind of a man of science must + be constituted differently from that of his fellow men; but if you will + not be frightened by terms, you will discover that you are quite wrong, + and that all these terrible apparatus <a href="#linknote-87" + name="linknoteref-87" id="linknoteref-87"><small>87</small></a> are being + used by yourselves every day and every hour of your lives. + </p> + <p> + There is a well-known incident in one of Moliere's plays,<a + href="#linknote-88" name="linknoteref-88" id="linknoteref-88"><small>88</small></a> + where the author makes the hero express unbounded delight on being told + that he had been talking prose during the whole of his life. In the same + way, I trust, that you will take comfort, and be delighted with + yourselves, on the discovery that you have been acting on the principles + of inductive and deductive philosophy during the same period. Probably + there is not one here who has not in the course of the day had occasion to + set in motion a complex train of reasoning, of the very same kind, though + differing of course in degree, as that which a scientific man goes through + in tracing the causes of natural phenomena. + </p> + <p> + A very trivial circumstance will serve to exemplify this. Suppose you go + into a fruiterer's shop, wanting an apple,—you take up one, and, on + biting it, you find it is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard + and green. You take up another one, and that too is hard, green, and sour. + The shopman offers you a third; but, before biting it, you examine it, and + find that it is hard and green, and you immediately say that you will not + have it, as it must be sour, like those that you have already tried. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more simple than that, you think; but if you will take the + trouble to analyse and trace out into its logical elements what has been + done by the mind, you will be greatly surprised. In the first place you + have performed the operation of induction. You found that, in two + experiences, hardness and greenness in apples went together with sourness. + It was so in the first case, and it was confirmed by the second. True, it + is a very small basis, but still it is enough to make an induction from; + you generalise the facts, and you expect to find sourness in apples where + you get hardness and greenness. You found upon that a general law that all + hard and green apples are sour; and that, so far as it goes, is a perfect + induction. Well, having got your natural law in this way, when you are + offered another apple which you find is hard and green, you say, "All hard + and green apples are sour; this apple is hard and green, therefore this + apple is sour." That train of reasoning is what logicians call a + syllogism, and has all its various parts and terms,—its major + premiss, its minor premiss and its conclusion. And, by the help of further + reasoning, which, if drawn out, would have to be exhibited in two or three + other syllogisms, you arrive at your final determination, "I will not have + that apple." So that, you see, you have, in the first place, established a + law by induction, and upon that you have founded a deduction, and reasoned + out the special particular case. Well now, suppose, having got your + conclusion of the law, that at some time afterwards, you are discussing + the qualities of apples with a friend: you will say to him, "It is a very + curious thing,—but I find that all hard and green apples are sour!" + Your friend says to you, "But how do you know that?" You at once reply, + "Oh, because I have tried them over and over again, and have always found + them to be so." Well, if we were talking science instead of common sense, + we should call that an experimental verification. And, if still opposed, + you go further, and say, "I have heard from the people in Somersetshire + and Devonshire, where a large number of apples are grown, that they have + observed the same thing. It is also found to be the case in Normandy, and + in North America. In short, I find it to be the universal experience of + mankind wherever attention has been directed to the subject." Whereupon, + your friend, unless he is a very unreasonable man, agrees with you, and is + convinced that you are quite right in the conclusion you have drawn. He + believes, although perhaps he does not know he believes it, that the more + extensive verifications are,—that the more frequently experiments + have been made, and results of the same kind arrived at,—that the + more varied the conditions under which the same results are attained, the + more certain is the ultimate conclusion, and he disputes the question no + further. He sees that the experiment has been tried under all sorts of + conditions, as to time, place, and people, with the same result; and he + says with you, therefore, that the law you have laid down must be a good + one, and he must believe it. + </p> + <p> + In science we do the same thing;—the philosopher exercises precisely + the same faculties, though in a much more delicate manner. In scientific + inquiry it becomes a matter of duty to expose a supposed law to every + possible kind of verification, and to take care, moreover, that this is + done intentionally, and not left to a mere accident, as in the case of the + apples. And in science, as in common life, our confidence in a law is in + exact proportion to the absence of variation in the result of our + experimental verifications. For instance, if you let go your grasp of an + article you may have in your hand, it will immediately fall to the ground. + That is a very common verification of one of the best established laws of + nature—that of gravitation. The method by which men of science + establish the existence of that law is exactly the same as that by which + we have established the trivial proposition about the sourness of hard and + green apples. But we believe it in such an extensive, thorough, and + unhesitating manner because the universal experience of mankind verifies + it, and we can verify it ourselves at any time; and that is the strongest + possible foundation on which any natural law can rest. + </p> + <p> + So much, then, by way of proof that the method of establishing laws in + science is exactly the same as that pursued in common life. Let us now + turn to another matter (though really it is but another phase of the same + question), and that is, the method by which, from the relations of certain + phenomena, we prove that some stand in the position of causes towards the + others. + </p> + <p> + I want to put the case clearly before you, and I will therefore show you + what I mean by another familiar example. I will suppose that one of you, + on coming down in the morning to the parlor of your house, finds that a + tea-pot and some spoons which had been left in the room on the previous + evening are gone,—the window is open, and you observe the mark of a + dirty hand on the window-frame, and perhaps, in addition to that, you + notice the impress of a hob-nailed shoe on the gravel outside. All these + phenomena have struck your attention instantly, and before two seconds + have passed you say, "Oh, somebody has broken open the window, entered the + room, and run off with the spoons and the tea-pot!" That speech is out of + your mouth in a moment. And you will probably add, "I know there has; I am + quite sure of it!" You mean to say exactly what you know; but in reality + you are giving expression to what is, in all essential particulars, an + hypothesis. You do not KNOW it at all; it is nothing but an hypothesis + rapidly framed in your own mind. And it is an hypothesis founded on a long + train of inductions and deductions. + </p> + <p> + What are those inductions and deductions, and how have you got at this + hypothesis? You have observed in the first place, that the window is open; + but by a train of reasoning involving many inductions and deductions, you + have probably arrived long before at the general law—and a very good + one it is—that windows do not open of themselves; and you therefore + conclude that something has opened the window. A second general law that + you have arrived at in the same way is, that tea-pots and spoons do not go + out of a window spontaneously, and you are satisfied that, as they are not + now where you left them, they have been removed. In the third place, you + look at the marks on the windowsill, and the shoe-marks outside, and you + say that in all previous experience the former kind of mark has never been + produced by anything else but the hand of a human being; and the same + experience shows that no other animal but man at present wears shoes with + hob-nails in them such as would produce the marks in the gravel. I do not + know, even if we could discover any of those "missing links" that are + talked about, that they would help us to any other conclusion! At any rate + the law which states our present experience is strong enough for my + present purpose. You next reach the conclusion that, as these kind <a + href="#linknote-89" name="linknoteref-89" id="linknoteref-89"><small>89</small></a> + of marks have not been left by any other animal than man, or are liable to + be formed in any other way than a man's hand and shoe, the marks in + question have been formed by a man in that way. You have, further, a + general law, founded on observation and experience, and that, too, is, I + am sorry to say, a very universal and unimpeachable one,—that some + men are thieves; and you assume at once from all these premisses—and + that is what constitutes your hypothesis—that the man who made the + marks outside and on the window-sill, opened the window, got into the + room, and stole your tea-pot and spoons. You have now arrived at a vera + causa;—you have assumed a cause which, it is plain, is competent to + produce all the phenomena you have observed. You can explain all these + phenomena only by the hypothesis of a thief. But that is a hypothetical + conclusion, of the justice of which you have no absolute proof at all; it + is only rendered highly probable by a series of inductive and deductive + reasonings. + </p> + <p> + I suppose your first action, assuming that you are a man of ordinary + common sense, and that you have established this hypothesis to your own + satisfaction, will very likely be to go off for the police, and set them + on the track of the burglar, with the view to the recovery of your + property. But just as you are starting with this object, some person comes + in, and on learning what you are about, says, "My good friend, you are + going on a great deal too fast. How do you know that the man who really + made the marks took the spoons? It might have been a monkey that took + them, and the man may have merely looked in afterwards." You would + probably reply, "Well, that is all very well, but you see it is contrary + to all experience of the way tea-pots and spoons are abstracted; so that, + at any rate, your hypothesis is less probable than mine." While you are + talking the thing over in this way, another friend arrives, one of the + good kind of people that I was talking of a little while ago. And he might + say, "Oh, my dear sir, you are certainly going on a great deal too fast. + You are most presumptuous. You admit that all these occurrences took place + when you were fast asleep, at a time when you could not possibly have + known anything about what was taking place. How do you know that the laws + of Nature are not suspended during the night? It may be that there has + been some kind of supernatural interference in this case." In point of + fact, he declares that your hypothesis is one of which you cannot at all + demonstrate the truth, and that you are by no means sure that the laws of + Nature are the same when you are asleep as when you are awake. + </p> + <p> + Well, now, you cannot at the moment answer that kind of reasoning. You + feel that your worthy friend has you somewhat at a disadvantage. You will + feel perfectly convinced in your own mind, however, that you are quite + right, and you say to him, "My good friend, I can only be guided by the + natural probabilities of the case, and if you will be kind enough to stand + aside and permit me to pass, I will go and fetch the police." Well, we + will suppose that your journey is successful, and that by good luck you + meet with a policeman; that eventually the burglar is found with your + property on his person, and the marks correspond to his hand and to his + boots. Probably any jury would consider those facts a very good + experimental verification of your hypothesis, touching the cause of the + abnormal phenomena observed in your parlor, and would act accordingly. + </p> + <p> + Now, in this supposititious case, I have taken phenomena of a very common + kind, in order that you might see what are the different steps in an + ordinary process of reasoning, if you will only take the trouble to + analyse it carefully. All the operations I have described, you will see, + are involved in the mind of any man of sense in leading him to a + conclusion as to the course he should take in order to make good a robbery + and punish the offender. I say that you are led, in that case, to your + conclusion by exactly the same train of reasoning as that which a man of + science pursues when he is endeavouring to discover the origin and laws of + the most occult phenomena. The process is, and always must be, the same; + and precisely the same mode of reasoning was employed by Newton <a + href="#linknote-90" name="linknoteref-90" id="linknoteref-90"><small>90</small></a> + and Laplace <a href="#linknote-91" name="linknoteref-91" + id="linknoteref-91"><small>91</small></a> in their endeavours to discover + and define the causes of the movements of the heavenly bodies, as you, + with your own common sense, would employ to detect a burglar. The only + difference is, that the nature of the inquiry being more abstruse, every + step has to be most carefully watched, so that there may not be a single + crack or flaw in your hypothesis. A flaw or crack in many of the + hypotheses of daily life may be of little or no moment as affecting the + general correctness of the conclusions at which we may arrive; but, in a + scientific inquiry, a fallacy, great or small, is always of importance, + and is sure to be in the long run constantly productive of mischievous if + not fatal results. + </p> + <p> + Do not allow yourselves to be misled by the common notion that an + hypothesis is untrustworthy simply because it is an hypothesis. It is + often urged, in respect to some scientific conclusion, that, after all, it + is only an hypothesis. But what more have we to guide us in nine-tenths of + the most important affairs of daily life than hypotheses, and often very + ill-based ones? So that in science, where the evidence of an hypothesis is + subjected to the most rigid examination, we may rightly pursue the same + course. You may have hypotheses, and hypotheses. A man may say, if he + likes, that the moon is made of green cheese: that is an hypothesis. But + another man, who has devoted a great deal of time and attention to the + subject, and availed himself of the most powerful telescopes and the + results of the observations of others, declares that in his opinion it is + probably composed of materials very similar to those of which our own + earth is made up: and that is also only an hypothesis. But I need not tell + you that there is an enormous difference in the value of the two + hypotheses. That one which is based on sound scientific knowledge is sure + to have a corresponding value; and that which is a mere hasty random guess + is likely to have but little value. Every great step in our progress in + discovering causes has been made in exactly the same way as that which I + have detailed to you. A person observing the occurrence of certain facts + and phenomena asks, naturally enough, what process, what kind of operation + known to occur in Nature applied to the particular case, will unravel and + explain the mystery? Hence you have the scientific hypothesis; and its + value will be proportionate to the care and completeness with which its + basis had been tested and verified. It is in these matters as in the + commonest affairs of practical life: the guess of the fool will be folly, + while the guess of the wise man will contain wisdom. In all cases, you see + that the value of the result depends on the patience and faithfulness with + which the investigator applies to his hypothesis every possible kind of + verification. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE <a href="#linknote-92" name="linknoteref-92" + id="linknoteref-92"><small>92</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + In order to make the title of this discourse generally intelligible, I + have translated the term "Protoplasm," which is the scientific name of the + substance of which I am about to speak, by the words "the physical basis + of life." I suppose that, to many, the idea that there is such a thing as + a physical basis, or matter, of life may be novel—so widely spread + is the conception of life as a something which works through matter, but + is independent of it; and even those who are aware that matter and life + are inseparably connected, may not be prepared for the conclusion plainly + suggested by the phrase, "THE physical basis or matter of life," that + there is some one kind of matter which is common to all living beings, and + that their endless diversities are bound together by a physical, as well + as an ideal, unity. In fact, when first apprehended, such a doctrine as + this appears almost shocking to common sense. + </p> + <p> + What, truly, can seem to be more obviously different from one another, in + faculty, in form, and in substance, than the various kinds of living + beings? What community of faculty can there be between the bright-coloured + lichen, which so nearly resembles a mere mineral incrustation of the bare + rock on which it grows, and the painter, to whom it is instinct with + beauty, or the botanist, whom it feeds with knowledge? + </p> + <p> + Again, think of the microscopic fungus—a mere infinitesimal ovoid + particle, which finds space and duration enough to multiply into countless + millions in the body of a living fly; and then of the wealth of foliage, + the luxuriance of flower and fruit, which lies between this bald sketch of + a plant and the giant pine of California, towering to the dimensions of a + cathedral spire, or the Indian fig, which covers acres with its profound + shadow, and endures while nations and empires come and go around its vast + circumference. Or, turning to the other half of the world of life, picture + to yourselves the great Finner whale,<a href="#linknote-93" + name="linknoteref-93" id="linknoteref-93"><small>93</small></a> hugest of + beasts that live, or have lived, disporting his eighty or ninety feet of + bone, muscle and blubber, with easy roll, among waves in which the + stoutest ship that ever left dockyard would flounder hopelessly; and + contrast him with the invisible animalcules—mere gelatinous specks, + multitudes of which could, in fact, dance upon the point of a needle with + the same ease as the angels of the Schoolmen could, in imagination. With + these images before your minds, you may well ask, what community of form, + or structure, is there between the animalcule and the whale; or between + the fungus and the fig-tree? And, a fortiori,<a href="#linknote-94" + name="linknoteref-94" id="linknoteref-94"><small>94</small></a> between + all four? + </p> + <p> + Finally, if we regard substance, or material composition, what hidden bond + can connect the flower which a girl wears in her hair and the blood which + courses through her youthful veins; or, what is there in common between + the dense and resisting mass of the oak, or the strong fabric of the + tortoise, and those broad disks of glassy jelly which may be seen + pulsating through the waters of a calm sea, but which drain away to mere + films in the hand which raises them out of their element? + </p> + <p> + Such objections as these must, I think, arise in the mind of every one who + ponders, for the first time, upon the conception of a single physical + basis of life underlying all the diversities of vital existence; but I + propose to demonstrate to you that, notwithstanding these apparent + difficulties, a threefold unity—namely, a unity of power or faculty, + a unity of form, and a unity of substantial composition—does pervade + the whole living world. + </p> + <p> + No very abstruse argumentation is needed, in the first place to prove that + the powers, or faculties, of all kinds of living matter, diverse as they + may be in degree, are substantially similar in kind. + </p> + <p> + Goethe has condensed a survey of all powers of mankind into the well-known + epigram:—<a href="#linknote-95" name="linknoteref-95" + id="linknoteref-95"><small>95</small></a> + </p> + <p> + "Warum treibt sich das Volk so und schreit? Es will sich ernahren Kinder + zeugen, und die nahren so gut es vermag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Weiter + bringt es kein Mensch, stell' er sich wie er auch will." + </p> + <p> + In physiological language this means, that all the multifarious and + complicated activities of man are comprehensible under three categories. + Either they are immediately directed towards the maintenance and + development of the body, or they effect transitory changes in the relative + positions of parts of the body, or they tend towards the continuance of + the species. Even those manifestations of intellect, of feeling, and of + will, which we rightly name the higher faculties, are not excluded from + this classification, inasmuch as to every one but the subject of them, + they are known only as transitory changes in the relative positions of + parts of the body. Speech, gesture, and every other form of human action + are, in the long run, resolvable into muscular contraction, and muscular + contraction is but a transitory change in the relative positions of the + parts of a muscle. But the scheme which is large enough to embrace the + activities of the highest form of life, covers all those of the lower + creatures. The lowest plant, or animalcule, feeds, grows, and reproduces + its kind. In addition, all animals manifest those transitory changes of + form which we class under irritability and contractility; and, it is more + than probable, that when the vegetable world is thoroughly explored, we + shall find all plants in possession of the same powers, at one time or + other of their existence. + </p> + <p> + I am not now alluding to such phaenomena, at once rare and conspicuous, as + those exhibited by the leaflets of the sensitive plants, or the stamens of + the barberry, but to much more widely spread, and at the same time, more + subtle and hidden, manifestations of vegetable contractility. You are + doubtless aware that the common nettle owes its stinging property to the + innumerable stiff and needle-like, though exquisitely delicate, hairs + which cover its surface. Each stinging-needle tapers from a broad base to + a slender summit, which, though rounded at the end, is of such microscopic + fineness that it readily penetrates, and breaks off in, the skin. The + whole hair consists of a very delicate outer case of wood, closely applied + to the inner surface of which is a layer of semi-fluid matter, full of + innumerable granules of extreme minuteness. This semi-fluid lining is + protoplasm, which thus constitutes a kind of bag, full of a limpid liquid, + and roughly corresponding in form with the interior of the hair which it + fills. When viewed with a sufficiently high magnifying power, the + protoplasmic layer of the nettle hair is seen to be in a condition of + unceasing activity. Local contractions of the whole thickness of its + substance pass slowly and gradually from point to point, and give rise to + the appearance of progressive waves, just as the bending of successive + stalks of corn by a breeze produces the apparent billows of a cornfield. + </p> + <p> + But, in addition to these movements, and independently of them, the + granules are driven, in relatively rapid streams, through channels in the + protoplasm which seem to have a considerable amount of persistence. Most + commonly, the currents in adjacent parts of the protoplasm take similar + directions; and, thus, there is a general stream up one side of the hair + and down the other. But this does not prevent the existence of partial + currents which take different routes; and sometimes trains of granules may + be seen coursing swiftly in opposite directions within a twenty-thousandth + of an inch of one another; while, occasionally, opposite streams come into + direct collision, and, after a longer or shorter struggle, one + predominates. The cause of these currents seems to lie in contractions of + the protoplasm which bounds the channels in which they flow, but which are + so minute that the best microscopes show only their effects, and not + themselves. + </p> + <p> + The spectacle afforded by the wonderful energies prisoned within the + compass of the microscopic hair of a plant, which we commonly regard as a + merely passive organism, is not easily forgotten by one who has watched + its display, continued hour after hour, without pause or sign of + weakening. The possible complexity of many other organic forms, seemingly + as simple as the protoplasm of the nettle, dawns upon one; and the + comparison of such a protoplasm to a body with an internal circulation, + which has been put forward by an eminent physiologist, loses much of its + startling character. Currents similar to those of the hairs of the nettle + have been observed in a great multitude of very different plants, and + weighty authorities have suggested that they probably occur, in more or + less perfection, in all young vegetable cells. If such be the case, the + wonderful noonday silence of a tropical forest is, after all, due only to + the dulness of our hearing; and could our ears catch the murmur of these + tiny Maelstroms, <a href="#linknote-96" name="linknoteref-96" + id="linknoteref-96"><small>96</small></a> as they whirl in the innumerable + myriads of living cells which constitute each tree, we should be stunned, + as with the roar of a great city. + </p> + <p> + Among the lower plants, it is the rule rather than the exception, that + contractility should be still more openly manifested at some periods of + their existence. The protoplasm of Algae and Fungi becomes, under many + circumstances, partially, or completely, freed from its woody case, and + exhibits movements of its whole mass, or is propelled by the contractility + of one, or more, hair-like prolongations of its body, which are called + vibratile cilia. And, so far as the conditions of the manifestation of the + phaenomena of contractility have yet been studied, they are the same for + the plant as for the animal. Heat and electric shocks influence both, and + in the same way, though it may be in different degrees. It is by no means + my intention to suggest that there is no difference in faculty between the + lowest plant and the highest, or between plants and animals. But the + difference between the powers of the lowest plant, or animal, and those of + the highest, is one of degree, not of kind, and depends, as Milne-Edwards + <a href="#linknote-97" name="linknoteref-97" id="linknoteref-97"><small>97</small></a> + long ago so well pointed out, upon the extent to which the principle of + the division of labour is carried out in the living economy. In the lowest + organism all parts are competent to perform all functions, and one and the + same portion of protoplasm may successfully take on the function of + feeding, moving, or reproducing apparatus. In the highest, on the + contrary, a great number of parts combine to perform each function, each + part doing its allotted share of the work with great accuracy and + efficiency, but being useless for any other purpose. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, notwithstanding all the fundamental resemblances which + exist between the powers of the protoplasm in plants and in animals, they + present a striking difference (to which I shall advert more at length + presently), in the fact that plants can manufacture fresh protoplasm out + of mineral compounds, whereas animals are obliged to procure it ready + made, and hence, in the long run, depend upon plants. Upon what condition + this difference in the powers of the two great divisions of the world of + life depends, nothing is at present known. + </p> + <p> + With such qualifications as arises <a href="#linknote-98" + name="linknoteref-98" id="linknoteref-98"><small>98</small></a> out of the + last-mentioned fact, it may be truly said that the acts of all living + things are fundamentally one. Is any such unity predicable of their forms? + Let us seek in easily verified facts for a reply to this question. If a + drop of blood be drawn by pricking one's finger, and viewed with proper + precautions, and under a sufficiently high microscopic power, there will + be seen, among the innumerable multitude of little, circular, discoidal + bodies, or corpuscles, which float in it and give it its colour, a + comparatively small number of colourless corpuscles, of somewhat larger + size and very irregular shape. If the drop of blood be kept at the + temperature of the body, these colourless corpuscles will be seen to + exhibit a marvellous activity, changing their forms with great rapidity, + drawing in and thrusting out prolongations of their substance, and + creeping about as if they were independent organisms. + </p> + <p> + The substance which is thus active is a mass of protoplasm, and its + activity differs in detail, rather than in principle, from that of the + protoplasm of the nettle. Under sundry circumstances the corpuscle dies + and becomes distended into a round mass, in the midst of which is seen a + smaller spherical body, which existed, but was more or less hidden, in the + living corpuscle, and is called its nucleus. Corpuscles of essentially + similar structure are to be found in the skin, in the lining of the mouth, + and scattered through the whole framework of the body. Nay, more; in the + earliest condition of the human organism, in that state in which it has + but just become distinguishable from the egg in which it arises, it is + nothing but an aggregation of such corpuscles, and every organ of the body + was, once, no more than such an aggregation. + </p> + <p> + Thus a nucleated mass of protoplasm turns out to be what may be termed the + structural unit of the human body. As a matter of fact, the body, in its + earliest state, is a mere multiple of such units; and in its perfect + condition, it is a multiple of such units, variously modified. + </p> + <p> + But does the formula which expresses the essential structural character of + the highest animal cover all the rest, as the statement of its powers and + faculties covered that of all others? Very nearly. Beast and fowl, reptile + and fish, mollusk, worm, and polype, are all composed of structural units + of the same character, namely, masses of protoplasm with a nucleus. There + are sundry very low animals, each of which, structurally, is a mere + colourless blood-corpuscle, leading an independent life. But, at the very + bottom of the animal scale, even this simplicity becomes simplified, and + all the phaenomena of life are manifested by a particle of protoplasm + without a nucleus. Nor are such organisms insignificant by reason of their + want of complexity. It is a fair question whether the protoplasm of those + simplest forms of life, which people an immense extent of the bottom of + the sea, would not outweigh that of all the higher living beings which + inhabit the land put together. And in ancient times, no less than at the + present day, such living beings as these have been the greatest of rock + builders. + </p> + <p> + What has been said of the animal world is no less true of plants. Imbedded + in the protoplasm at the broad, or attached, end of the nettle hair, there + lies a spheroidal nucleus. Careful examination further proves that the + whole substance of the nettle is made up of a repetition of such masses of + nucleated protoplasm, each contained in a wooden case, which is modified + in form, sometimes into a woody fibre, sometimes into a duct or spiral + vessel, sometimes into a pollen grain, or an ovule. Traced back to its + earliest state, the nettle arises as the man does, in a particle of + nucleated protoplasm. And in the lowest plants, as in the lowest animals, + a single mass of such protoplasm may constitute the whole plant, or the + protoplasm may exist without a nucleus. + </p> + <p> + Under these circumstances it may well be asked, how is one mass of + non-nucleated protoplasm to be distinguished from another? why call one + "plant" and the other "animal"? + </p> + <p> + The only reply is that, so far as form is concerned, plants and animals + are not separable, and that, in many cases, it is a mere matter of + convention whether we call a given organism an animal or a plant. There is + a living body called Aethalium septicum, which appears upon decaying + vegetable substances, and, in one of its forms, is common upon the + surfaces of tan-pits. In this condition it is, to all intents and + purposes, a fungus, and formerly was always regarded as such; but the + remarkable investigations of De Bary <a href="#linknote-99" + name="linknoteref-99" id="linknoteref-99"><small>99</small></a> have shown + that, in another condition, the Aethalium is an actively locomotive + creature, and takes in solid matters, upon which, apparently, it feeds, + thus exhibiting the most characteristic feature of animality. Is this a + plant; or is it an animal? Is it both; or is it neither? Some decide in + favour of the last supposition, and establish an intermediate kingdom, a + sort of biological No Man's Land <a href="#linknote-100" + name="linknoteref-100" id="linknoteref-100"><small>100</small></a> for all + these questionable forms. But, as it is admittedly impossible to draw any + distinct boundary line between this no man's land and the vegetable world + on the one hand, or the animal, on the other, it appears to me that this + proceeding merely doubles the difficulty which, before, was single. + </p> + <p> + Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is + the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains + clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick + or sun-dried clod. + </p> + <p> + Thus it becomes clear that all living powers are cognate, and that all + living forms are fundamentally of one character. The researches of the + chemist have revealed a no less striking uniformity of material + composition in living matter. + </p> + <p> + In perfect strictness, it is true that chemical investigation can tell us + little or nothing, directly, of the composition of living matter, inasmuch + as such matter must needs die in the act of analysis,—and upon this + very obvious ground, objections, which I confess seem to me to be somewhat + frivolous, have been raised to the drawing of any conclusions whatever + respecting the composition of actually living matter, from that of the + dead matter of life, which alone is accessible to us. But objectors of + this class do not seem to reflect that it is also, in strictness, true + that we know nothing about the composition of any body whatever, as it is. + The statement that a crystal of calc-spar consists of carbonate of lime, + is quite true, if we only mean that, by appropriate processes, it may be + resolved into carbonic acid and quicklime. If you pass the same carbonic + acid over the very quicklime thus obtained, you will obtain carbonate of + lime again; but it will not be calc-spar, nor anything like it. Can it, + therefore, be said that chemical analysis teaches nothing about the + chemical composition of calc-spar? Such a statement would be absurd; but + it is hardly more so than the talk one occasionally hears about the + uselessness of applying the results of chemical analysis to the living + bodies which have yielded them. + </p> + <p> + One fact, at any rate, is out of reach of such refinements, and this is, + that all the forms of protoplasm which have yet been examined contain the + four elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, in very complex + union, and that they behave similarly towards several reagents. To this + complex combination, the nature of which has never been determined with + exactness, the name of Protein has been applied. And if we use this term + with such caution as may properly arise out of our comparative ignorance + of the things for which it stands, it may be truly said, that all + protoplasm is proteinaceous, or, as the white, or albumen, of an egg is + one of the commonest examples of a nearly pure proteine matter, we may say + that all living matter is more or less albuminoid. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps it would not yet be safe to say that all forms of protoplasm are + affected by the direct action of electric shocks; and yet the number of + cases in which the contraction of protoplasm is shown to be affected by + this agency increases every day. + </p> + <p> + Nor can it be affirmed with perfect confidence, that all forms of + protoplasm are liable to undergo that peculiar coagulation at a + temperature of 40-50 degrees centigrade, which has been called + "heat-stiffening," though Kuhne's <a href="#linknote-101" + name="linknoteref-101" id="linknoteref-101"><small>101</small></a> + beautiful researches have proved this occurrence to take place in so many + and such diverse living beings, that it is hardly rash to expect that the + law holds good for all. + </p> + <p> + Enough has, perhaps, been said to prove the existence of a general + uniformity in the character of the protoplasm, or physical basis, of life, + in whatever group of living beings it may be studied. But it will be + understood that this general uniformity by no means excludes any amount of + special modifications of the fundamental substance. The mineral, carbonate + of lime, assumes an immense diversity of characters, though no one doubts + that, under all these Protean changes, it is one and the same thing. + </p> + <p> + And now, what is the ultimate fate, and what the origin, of the matter of + life? + </p> + <p> + Is it, as some of the older naturalists supposed, diffused throughout the + universe in molecules, which are indestructible and unchangeable in + themselves; but, in endless transmigration, unite in innumerable + permutations, into the diversified forms of life we know? Or, is the + matter of life composed of ordinary matter, differing from it only in the + manner in which its atoms are aggregated? Is it built up of ordinary + matter, and again resolved into ordinary matter when its work is done? + </p> + <p> + Modern science does not hesitate a moment between these alternatives. + Physiology writes over the portals of life— + </p> + <p> + "Debemur morti nos nostraque,"<a href="#linknote-102" + name="linknoteref-102" id="linknoteref-102"><small>102</small></a> + </p> + <p> + with a profounder meaning than the Roman poet attached to that melancholy + line. Under whatever disguise it takes refuge, whether fungus or oak, worm + or man, the living protoplasm not only ultimately dies and is resolved + into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is always dying, and, + strange as the paradox may sound, could not live unless it died. + </p> + <p> + In the wonderful story of the Peau de Chagrin,<a href="#linknote-103" + name="linknoteref-103" id="linknoteref-103"><small>103</small></a> the + hero becomes possessed of a magical wild ass' skin, which yields him the + means of gratifying all his wishes. But its surface represents the + duration of the proprietor's life; and for every satisfied desire the skin + shrinks in proportion to the intensity of fruition, until at length life + and the last handbreadth of the peau de chagrin, disappear with the + gratification of a last wish. + </p> + <p> + Balzac's <a href="#linknote-104" name="linknoteref-104" + id="linknoteref-104"><small>104</small></a> studies had led him over a + wide range of thought and speculation, and his shadowing forth of + physiological truth in this strange story may have been intentional. At + any rate, the matter of life is a veritable peau de chagrin, and for every + vital act it is somewhat the smaller. All work implies waste, and the work + of life results, directly or indirectly, in the waste of protoplasm. + </p> + <p> + Every word uttered by a speaker costs him some physical loss; and, in the + strictest sense, he burns that others may have light—so much + eloquence, so much of his body resolved into carbonic acid, water, and + urea. It is clear that this process of expenditure cannot go on for ever. + But, happily, the protoplasmic peau de chagrin differs from Balzac's in + its capacity of being repaired, and brought back to its full size, after + every exertion. + </p> + <p> + For example, this present lecture, whatever its intellectual worth to you, + has a certain physical value to me, which is, conceivably, expressible by + the number of grains of protoplasm and other bodily substance wasted in + maintaining my vital processes during its delivery. My peau de chagrin + will be distinctly smaller at the end of the discourse than it was at the + beginning. By and by, I shall probably have recourse to the substance + commonly called mutton, for the purpose of stretching it back to its + original size. Now this mutton was once the living protoplasm, more or + less modified, of another animal—a sheep. As I shall eat it, it is + the same matter altered, not only by death, but by exposure to sundry + artificial operations in the process of cooking. + </p> + <p> + But these changes, whatever be their extent, have not rendered it + incompetent to resume its old functions as matter of life. A singular + inward laboratory, which I possess, will dissolve a certain portion of the + modified protoplasm; the solution so formed will pass into my veins; and + the subtle influences to which it will then be subjected will convert the + dead protoplasm into living protoplasm, and transubstantiate sheep into + man. + </p> + <p> + Nor is this all. If digestion were a thing to be trifled with, I might sup + upon lobster, and the matter of life of the crustacean would undergo the + same wonderful metamorphosis into humanity. And were I to return to my own + place by sea, and undergo shipwreck, the crustacean might, and probably + would, return the compliment, and demonstrate our common nature by turning + my protoplasm into living lobster. Or, if nothing better were to be had, I + might supply my wants with mere bread, and I should find the protoplasm of + the wheat-plant to be convertible into man, with no more trouble than that + of the sheep, and with far less, I fancy, than that of the lobster. + </p> + <p> + Hence it appears to be a matter of no great moment what animal, or what + plant, I lay under contribution for protoplasm, and the fact speaks + volumes for the general identity of that substance in all living beings. I + share this catholicity of assimilation with other animals, all of which, + so far as we know, could thrive equally well on the protoplasm of any of + their fellows, or of any plant; but here the assimilative powers of the + animal world cease. A solution of smelling-salts in water, with an + infinitesimal proportion of some other saline matters, contains all the + elementary bodies which enter into the composition of protoplasm; but, as + I need hardly say, a hogshead of that fluid would not keep a hungry man + from starving, nor would it save any animal whatever from a like fate. An + animal cannot make protoplasm, but must take it ready-made from some other + animal, or some plant—the animal's highest feat of constructive + chemistry being to convert dead protoplasm into that living matter of life + which is appropriate to itself. + </p> + <p> + Therefore, in seeking for the origin of protoplasm, we must eventually + turn to the vegetable world. A fluid containing carbonic acid, water, and + nitrogenous salts, which offers such a Barmecide feast <a + href="#linknote-105" name="linknoteref-105" id="linknoteref-105"><small>105</small></a> + to the animal, is a table richly spread to multitudes of plants; and, with + a due supply of only such materials, many a plant will not only maintain + itself in vigour, but grow and multiply until it has increased a + million-fold, or a million million-fold, the quantity of protoplasm which + it originally possessed; in this way building up the matter of life, to an + indefinite extent, from the common matter of the universe. + </p> + <p> + Thus, the animal can only raise the complex substance of dead protoplasm + to the higher power, as one may say, of living protoplasm; while the plant + can raise the less complex substances—carbonic acid, water, and + nitrogenous salts—to the same stage of living protoplasm, if not to + the same level. But the plant also has its limitations. Some of the fungi, + for example, appear to need higher compounds to start with; and no known + plant can live upon the uncompounded elements of protoplasm. A plant + supplied with pure carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, phosphorus, + sulphur, and the like, would as infallibly die as the animal in his bath + of smelling-salts, though it would be surrounded by all the constituents + of protoplasm. Nor, indeed, need the process of simplification of + vegetable food be carried so far as this, in order to arrive at the limit + of the plant's thaumaturgy. Let water, carbonic acid, and all the other + needful constituents be supplied except nitrogenous salts, and an ordinary + plant will still be unable to manufacture protoplasm. + </p> + <p> + Thus the matter of life, so far as we know it (and we have no right to + speculate on any other), breaks up, in consequence of that continual death + which is the condition of its manifesting vitality, into carbonic acid, + water, and nitrogenous compounds, which certainly possess no properties + but those of ordinary matter. And out of these same forms of ordinary + matter, and from none which are simpler, the vegetable world builds up all + the protoplasm which keeps the animal world a-going. Plants are the + accumulators of the power which animals distribute and disperse. + </p> + <p> + But it will be observed, that the existence of the matter of life depends + on the pre-existence of certain compounds; namely, carbonic acid, water, + and certain nitrogenous bodies. Withdraw any one of these three from the + world, and all vital phaenomena come to an end. They are as necessary to + the protoplasm of the plant, as the protoplasm of the plant is to that of + the animal. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are all lifeless + bodies. Of these, carbon and oxygen unite in certain proportions and under + certain conditions, to give rise to carbonic acid; hydrogen and oxygen + produce water; nitrogen and other elements give rise to nitrogenous salts. + These new compounds, like the elementary bodies of which they are + composed, are lifeless. But when they are brought together, under certain + conditions, they give rise to the still more complex body, protoplasm, and + this protoplasm exhibits the phaenomena of life. + </p> + <p> + I see no break in this series of steps in molecular complication, and I am + unable to understand why the language which is applicable to any one term + of the series may not be used to any of the others. We think fit to call + different kinds of matter carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, and to + speak of the various powers and activities of these substances as the + properties of the matter of which they are composed. + </p> + <p> + When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in a certain proportion, and an + electric spark is passed through them, they disappear, and a quantity of + water, equal in weight to the sum of their weights, appears in their + place. There is not the slightest parity between the passive and active + powers of the water and those of the oxygen and hydrogen which have given + rise to it. At 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and far below that temperature, + oxygen and hydrogen are elastic gaseous bodies, whose particles tend to + rush away from one another with great force. Water, at the same + temperature, is a strong though brittle solid whose particles tend to + cohere into definite geometrical shapes, and sometimes build up frosty + imitations of the most complex forms of vegetable foliage. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless we call these, and many other strange phaenomena, the + properties of the water, and we do not hesitate to believe that, in some + way or another, they result from the properties of the component elements + of the water. We do not assume that a something called "aquosity" entered + into and took possession of the oxidated hydrogen as soon as it was + formed, and then guided the aqueous particles to their places in the + facets of the crystal, or amongst the leaflets of the hoar-frost. On the + contrary, we live in the hope and in the faith that, by the advance of + molecular physics, we shall by and by be able to see our way as clearly + from the constituents of water to the properties of water, as we are now + able to deduce the operations of a watch from the form of its parts and + the manner in which they are put together. + </p> + <p> + Is the case in any way changed when carbonic acid, water, and nitrogenous + salts disappear, and in their place, under the influence of pre-existing + living protoplasm, an equivalent weight of the matter of life makes its + appearance? + </p> + <p> + It is true that there is no sort of parity between the properties of the + components and the properties of the resultant, but neither was there in + the case of the water. It is also true that what I have spoken of as the + influence of pre-existing living matter is something quite unintelligible; + but does anybody quite comprehend the modus operandi <a + href="#linknote-106" name="linknoteref-106" id="linknoteref-106"><small>106</small></a> + of an electric spark, which traverses a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen? + </p> + <p> + What justification is there, then, for the assumption of the existence in + the living matter of a something which has no representative, or + correlative, in the not living matter which gave rise to it? What better + philosophical status has "vitality" than "aquosity"? And why should + "vitality" hope for a better fate than the other "itys" which have + disappeared since Martinus Scriblerus <a href="#linknote-107" + name="linknoteref-107" id="linknoteref-107"><small>107</small></a> + accounted for the operation of the meat-jack <a href="#linknote-108" + name="linknoteref-108" id="linknoteref-108"><small>108</small></a> by its + inherent "meat-roasting quality," and scorned the "materialism" of those + who explained the turning of the spit by a certain mechanism worked by the + draught of the chimney. + </p> + <p> + If scientific language is to possess a definite and constant signification + whenever it is employed, it seems to me that we are logically bound to + apply to the protoplasm, or physical basis of life, the same conceptions + as those which are held to be legitimate elsewhere. If the phaenomena + exhibited by water are its properties, so are those presented by + protoplasm, living or dead, its properties. + </p> + <p> + If the properties of water may be properly said to result from the nature + and disposition of its component molecules, I can find no intelligible + ground for refusing to say that the properties of protoplasm result from + the nature and disposition of its molecules. + </p> + <p> + But I bid you beware that, in accepting these conclusions, you are placing + your feet on the first rung of a ladder which, in most people's + estimation, is the reverse of Jacob's, and leads to the antipodes of + heaven. It may seem a small thing to admit that the dull vital actions of + a fungus, or a foraminifer, are the properties of their protoplasm, and + are the direct results of the nature of the matter of which they are + composed. But if, as I have endeavoured to prove to you, their protoplasm + is essentially identical with, and most readily converted into, that of + any animal, I can discover no logical halting-place between the admission + that such is the case, and the further concession that all vital action + may, with equal propriety, be said to be the result of the molecular + forces of the protoplasm which displays it. And if so, it must be true, in + the same sense and to the same extent, that the thoughts to which I am now + giving utterance, and your thoughts regarding them, are the expression of + molecular changes in that matter of life which is the source of our other + vital phaenomena.<a href="#linknote-109" name="linknoteref-109" + id="linknoteref-109"><small>109</small></a> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS <a href="#linknote-110" name="linknoteref-110" + id="linknoteref-110"><small>110</small></a> + </h2> + <p> + The marine productions which are commonly known by the names of "Corals" + and "Corallines," were thought by the ancients to be sea-weeds, which had + the singular property of becoming hard and solid, when they were fished up + from their native depths and came into contact with the air. + </p> + <p> + "Sic et curalium, quo primum contigit auras Tempore durescit: mollis fuit + herba sub undis,"<a href="#linknote-111" name="linknoteref-111" + id="linknoteref-111"><small>111</small></a> + </p> + <p> + says Ovid (Metam. xv); and it was not until the seventeenth century that + Boccone <a href="#linknote-112" name="linknoteref-112" id="linknoteref-112"><small>112</small></a> + was emboldened, by personal experience of the facts, to declare that the + holders of this belief were no better than "idiots," who had been misled + by the softness of the outer coat of the living red coral to imagine that + it was soft all through. + </p> + <p> + Messer Boccone's strong epithet is probably undeserved, as the notion he + controverts, in all likelihood, arose merely from the misinterpretation of + the strictly true statement which any coral fisherman would make to a + curious inquirer; namely, that the outside coat of the red coral is quite + soft when it is taken out of the sea. At any rate, he did good service by + eliminating this much error from the current notions about coral. But the + belief that corals are plants remained, not only in the popular, but in + the scientific mind; and it received what appeared to be a striking + confirmation from the researches of Marsigli <a href="#linknote-113" + name="linknoteref-113" id="linknoteref-113"><small>113</small></a> in + 1706. For this naturalist, having the opportunity of observing + freshly-taken red coral, saw that its branches were beset with what looked + like delicate and beautiful flowers each having eight petals. It was true + that these "flowers" could protrude and retract themselves, but their + motions were hardly more extensive, or more varied, than those of the + leaves of the sensitive plant; and therefore they could not be held to + militate against the conclusion so strongly suggested by their form and + their grouping upon the branches of a tree-like structure. + </p> + <p> + Twenty years later, a pupil of Marsigli, the young Marseilles physician, + Peyssonel, conceived the desire to study these singular sea-plants, and + was sent by the French Government on a mission to the Mediterranean for + that purpose. The pupil undertook the investigation full of confidence in + the ideas of his master, but being able to see and think for himself, he + soon discovered that those ideas by no means altogether corresponded with + reality. In an essay entitled "Traite du Corail," which was communicated + to the French Academy of Science, but which has never been published, + Peyssonel writes:— + </p> + <p> + "Je fis fleurir le corail dans des vases pleins d'eau de mer, et + j'observai que ce que nous croyons etre la fleur de cette pretendue plante + n'etait au vrai, qu'un insecte semblable a une petite Ortie ou Poulpe. + J'avais le plaisir de voir remuer les pattes, ou pieds, de cette Ortie, et + ayant mis le vase plein d'eau ou le corail etait a une douce chaleur + aupres du feu, tous les petits insectes s'epanouirent.—L'Ortie + sortie etend les pieds, et forme ce que M. de Marsigli et moi avions pris + pour les petales de la fleur. Le calice de cette pretendue fleur est le + corps meme de l'animal avance et sorti hors de la cellule."*<a + href="#linknote-114" name="linknoteref-114" id="linknoteref-114"><small>114</small></a> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * This extract from Peyssonel's manuscript is given by M. + Lacaze Duthiers in his valuable Histoire Naturelle du Corail + (1866). +</pre> + <p> + The comparison of the flowers of the coral to a "petite ortie," or "little + nettle," is perfectly just, but needs explanation. "Ortie de mer," or + "sea-nettle," is, in fact, the French appellation for our "sea-anemone," a + creature with which everybody, since the great aquarium mania, must have + become familiar, even to the limits of boredom. In 1710, the great + naturalist, Reaumur,<a href="#linknote-115" name="linknoteref-115" + id="linknoteref-115"><small>115</small></a> had written a memoir for the + express purpose of demonstrating that these "orties" are animals; and with + this important paper Peyssonel must necessarily have been familiar. + Therefore, when he declared the "flowers" of the red coral to be little + "orties," it was the same thing as saying that they were animals of the + same general nature as sea-anemones. But to Peyssonel's contemporaries + this was an extremely startling announcement. It was hard to imagine the + existence of such a thing as an association of animals into a structure + with stem and branches altogether like a plant, and fixed to the soil as a + plant is fixed; and the naturalists of that day preferred not to imagine + it. Even Reaumur could not bring himself to accept the notion, and France + being blessed with Academicians, whose great function (as the late Bishop + Wilson <a href="#linknote-116" name="linknoteref-116" id="linknoteref-116"><small>116</small></a> + and an eminent modern writer <a href="#linknote-117" name="linknoteref-117" + id="linknoteref-117"><small>117</small></a> have so well shown) is to + cause sweetness and light to prevail, and to prevent such unmannerly + fellows as Peyssonel from blurting out unedifying truths, they suppressed + him; and, as aforesaid, his great work remained in manuscript, and may at + this day be consulted by the curious in that state, in the Bibliotheque du + Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Peyssonel, who evidently was a person of + savage and untameable disposition, so far from appreciating the kindness + of the Academicians in giving him time to reflect upon the + unreasonableness, not to say rudeness, of making public statements in + opposition to the views of some of the most distinguished of their body, + seems bitterly to have resented the treatment he met with. For he sent all + further communications to the Royal Society of London, which never had, + and it is to be hoped never will have, anything of an academic + constitution; and finally he took himself off to Guadaloupe, and became + lost to science altogether. + </p> + <p> + Fifteen or sixteen years after the date of Peyssonel's suppressed paper, + the Abbe Trembley <a href="#linknote-118" name="linknoteref-118" + id="linknoteref-118"><small>118</small></a> published his wonderful + researches upon the fresh-water Hydra. Bernard de Jussieu <a + href="#linknote-119" name="linknoteref-119" id="linknoteref-119"><small>119</small></a> + and Guettard <a href="#linknote-120" name="linknoteref-120" + id="linknoteref-120"><small>120</small></a> followed them up by like + inquiries upon the marine sea-anemones and corallines; Reaumur, convinced + against his will of the entire justice of Peyssonel's views, adopted them, + and made him a half-and-half apology in the preface to the next published + volume of the "Memoires pour servir l'Histoire des Insectes;" and, from + this time forth, Peyssonel's doctrine that corals are the work of animal + organisms has been part of the body of established scientific truth. + </p> + <p> + Peyssonel, in the extract from his memoir already cited, compares the + flower-like animal of the coral to a "poulpe," which is the French form of + the name "polypus,"—"the many-footed,"—which the ancient + naturalists gave to the soft-bodied cuttlefishes, which, like the coral + animal, have eight arms, or tentacles, disposed around a central mouth. + Reaumur, admitting the analogy indicated by Peyssonel, gave the name of + polypes, not only to the sea-anemone, the coral animal, and the + fresh-water Hydra, but to what are now known as the Polyzoa, and he termed + the skeleton which they fabricate a "polypier," or "polypidom." + </p> + <p> + The progress of discovery, since Reaumur's time, has made us very + completely acquainted with the structure and habits of all these polypes. + We know that, among the sea-anemones and coral-forming animals, each + poylpe has a mouth leading to a stomach, which is open at its inner end, + and thus communicates freely with the general cavity of the body; that the + tentacles placed round the mouth are hollow, and that they perform the + part of arms in seizing and capturing prey. It is known that many of these + creatures are capable of being multiplied by artificial division, the + divided halves growing, after a time, into complete and separate animals; + and that many are able to perform a very similar process naturally, in + such a manner that one polype may, by repeated incomplete divisions, give + rise to a sort of sheet, or turf, formed by innumerable connected, and yet + independent, descendants. Or, what is still more common, a polype may + throw out buds, which are converted into polypes, or branches bearing + polypes, until a tree-like mass, sometimes of very considerable size, is + formed. + </p> + <p> + This is what happens in the case of the red coral of commerce. A minute + polype, fixed to the rocky bottom of the deep sea, grows up into a + branched trunk. The end of every branch and twig is terminated by a + polype; and all the polypes are connected together by a fleshy substance, + traversed by innumerable canals which place each polype in communication + with every other, and carry nourishment to the substance of the supporting + stem. It is a sort of natural cooperative store, every polype helping the + whole, at the same time as it helps itself. The interior of the stem, like + that of the branches, is solidified by the deposition of carbonate of lime + in its tissue, somewhat in the same fashion as our own bones are formed of + animal matter impregnated with lime salts; and it is this dense skeleton + (usually turned red by a peculiar colouring matter) cleared of the soft + animal investment, as the hard wood of a tree might be stripped of its + bark, which is the red coral. + </p> + <p> + In the case of the red coral, the hard skeleton belongs to the interior of + the stem and branches only; but in the commoner white corals, each polype + has a complete skeleton of its own. These polypes are sometimes solitary, + in which case the whole skeleton is represented by a single cup, with + partitions radiating from its centre to its circumference. When the + polypes formed by budding or division remain associated, the polypidom is + sometimes made up of nothing but an aggregation of these cups, while at + other times the cups are at once separated and held together, by an + intermediate substance, which represents the branches of the red coral. + The red coral polype again is a comparatively rare animal, inhabiting a + limited area, the skeleton of which has but a very insignificant mass; + while the white corals are very common, occur in almost all seas, and form + skeletons which are sometimes extremely massive. + </p> + <p> + With a very few exceptions, both the red and the white coral polypes are, + in their adult state, firmly adherent to the sea-bottom; nor do their buds + naturally become detached and locomotive. But, in addition to budding and + division, these creatures possess the more ordinary methods of + multiplication; and, at particular seasons, they give rise to numerous + eggs of minute size. Within these eggs the young are formed, and they + leave the egg in a condition which has no sort of resemblance to the + perfect animal. It is, in fact, a minute oval body, many hundred times + smaller than the full grown creature, and it swims about with great + activity by the help of multitudes of little hair-like filaments, called + cilia, with which its body is covered. These cilia all lash the water in + one direction, and so drive the little body along as if it were propelled + by thousands of extremely minute paddles. After enjoying its freedom for a + longer or shorter time, and being carried either by the force of its own + cilia, or by currents which bear it along, the embryo coral settles down + to the bottom, loses its cilia, and becomes fixed to the rock, gradually + assuming the polype form and growing up to the size of its parent. As the + infant polypes of the coral may retain this free and active condition for + many hours, or even days, and as a tidal or other current in the sea may + easily flow at the speed of two or even more miles in an hour, it is clear + that the embryo must often be transported to very considerable distances + from the parent. And it is easily understood how a single polype, which + may give rise to hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of embryos, may, by this + process of partly active and partly passive migration, cover an immense + surface with its offspring. + </p> + <p> + The masses of coral which may be formed by the assemblages of polypes + which spring by budding, or by dividing, from a single polype, + occasionally attain very considerable dimensions. Such skeletons are + sometimes great plates, many feet long and several feet in thickness; or + they may form huge half globes, like the brainstone corals, or may reach + the magnitude of stout shrubs or even small trees. There is reason to + believe that such masses as these take a long time to form, and hence that + the age a polype tree, or polype turf, may attain, may be considerable. + But, sooner or later, the coral polypes, like all other things, die; the + soft flesh decays, while the skeleton is left as a stony mass at the + bottom of the sea, where it retains its integrity for a longer or a + shorter time, according as its position affords more or less protection + from the wear and tear of the waves. + </p> + <p> + The polypes which give rise to the white coral are found, as has been + said, in the seas of all parts of the world; but in the temperate and cold + oceans they are scattered and comparatively small in size, so that the + skeletons of those which die do not accumulate in any considerable + quantity. But it is otherwise in the greater part of the ocean which lies + in the warmer parts of the world, comprised within a distance of about + eighteen hundred miles on each side of the equator. Within the zone thus + bounded, by far the greater part of the ocean is inhabited by coral + polypes, which not only form very strong and large skeletons, but + associate together into great masses, like the thickets and the meadow + turf, or, better still, the accumulations of peat, to which plants give + rise on dry land. These masses of stony matter, heaped up beneath the + waters of the ocean, become as dangerous to mariners as so much ordinary + rock, and to these, as to the common rock ridges, the seaman gives the + name of "reefs." + </p> + <p> + Such coral reefs cover many thousand square miles in the Pacific and in + the Indian Oceans. There is one reef, or rather great series of reefs, + called the Barrier Reef, which stretches, almost continuously, for more + than eleven hundred miles off the east coast of Australia. Multitudes of + the islands in the Pacific are either reefs themselves, or are surrounded + by reefs. The Red Sea is in many parts almost a maze of such reefs, and + they abound no less in the West Indies, along the coast of Florida, and + even as far north as the Bahama Islands. But it is a very remarkable + circumstance that, within the area of what we may call the "coral zone," + there are no coral reefs upon the west coast of America, nor upon the west + coast of Africa; and it is a general fact that the reefs are interrupted, + or absent, opposite the mouths of great rivers. The causes of this + apparent caprice in the distribution of coral reefs are not far to seek. + The polypes which fabricate them require for their vigorous growth a + temperature which must not fall below 68 degrees Fahrenheit all the year + round, and this temperature is only to be found within the distance on + each side of the equator which has been mentioned, or thereabouts. But + even within the coral zone this degree of warmth is not everywhere to be + had. On the west coast of America, and on the corresponding coast of + Africa, the currents of cold water from the icy regions which surround the + South Pole set northward, and it appears to be due to their cooling + influence that the sea in these regions is free from the reef builders. + Again, the coral polypes cannot live in water which is rendered brackish + by floods from the land, or which is perturbed by mud from the same + source, and hence it is that they cease to exist opposite the mouths of + rivers, which damage them in both these ways. + </p> + <p> + Such is the general distribution of the reef-building corals, but there + are some very interesting and singular circumstances to be observed in the + conformation of the reefs, when we consider them individually. The reefs, + in fact, are of three different kinds; some of them stretch out from the + shore, almost like a prolongation of the beach, covered only by shallow + water, and in the case of an island, surrounding it like a fringe of no + considerable breadth. These are termed "fringing reefs." Others are + separated by a channel which may attain a width of many miles, and a depth + of twenty or thirty fathoms or more, from the nearest land; and when this + land is an island, the reef surrounds it like a low wall, and the sea + between the reef and the land is, as it were, a moat inside this wall. + Such reefs as these are called "encircling" when they surround an island; + and "barrier" reefs, when they stretch parallel with the coast of a + continent. In both these cases there is ordinary dry land inside the reef, + and separated from it only by a narrower or a wider, a shallower or a + deeper, space of sea, which is called a "lagoon," or "inner passage." But + there is a third kind of reef, of very common occurrence in the Pacific + and Indian Oceans, which goes by the name of "atoll." This is, to all + intents and purposes, an encircling reef, without anything to encircle; + or, in other words, without an island in the middle of its lagoon. The + atoll has exactly the appearance of a vast, irregularly oval, or circular, + breakwater, enclosing smooth water in its midst. The depth of the water in + the lagoon rarely exceeds twenty or thirty fathoms, but, outside the reef, + it deepens with great rapidity to two hundred or three hundred fathoms. + The depth immediately outside the barrier, or encircling, reefs, may also + be very considerable; but, at the outer edge of a fringing reef, it does + not amount usually to more than twenty or twenty-five fathoms; in other + words, from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty feet. + </p> + <p> + Thus, if the water of the ocean should be suddenly drained away, we should + see the atolls rising from the sea-bed like vast truncated cones, and + resembling so many volcanic craters, except that their sides would be + steeper than those of an ordinary volcano. In the case of the encircling + reefs, the cone, with the enclosed island, would look like Vesuvius with + Monte Nuovo within the old crater of Somma;<a href="#linknote-121" + name="linknoteref-121" id="linknoteref-121"><small>121</small></a> while, + finally, the island with a fringing reef would have the appearance of an + ordinary hill, or mountain, girded by a vast parapet, within which would + lie a shallow moat. And the dry bed of the Pacific might afford grounds + for an inhabitant of the moon to speculate upon the extraordinary + subterranean activity to which these vast and numerous "craters" bore + witness! + </p> + <p> + When the structure of a fringing reef is investigated, the bottom of the + lagoon is found to be covered with fine whitish mud, which results from + the breaking up of the dead corals. Upon this muddy floor there lie, here + and there, growing corals, or occasionally great blocks of dead coral, + which have been torn by storms from the outer edge of the reef, and washed + into the lagoon. Shellfish and worms of various kinds abound; and fish, + some of which prey upon the coral, sport in the deeper pools. But the + corals which are to be seen growing in the shallow waters of the lagoon + are of a different kind from those which abound on the outer edge of the + reef, and of which the reef is built up. Close to the seaward edge of the + reef, over which, even in calm weather, a surf almost always breaks, the + coral rock is encrusted with a thick coat of a singular vegetable + organism, which contains a great deal of lime—the so-called + Nullipora. Beyond this, in the part of the edge of the reef which is + always covered by the breaking waves, the living, true, reef-polypes make + their appearance; and, in different forms, coat the steep seaward face of + the reef to a depth of one hundred or even one hundred and fifty feet. + Beyond this depth the sounding-lead rests, not upon the wall-like face of + the reef, but on the ordinary shelving sea-bottom. And the distance to + which a fringing reef extends from the land corresponds with that at which + the sea has a depth of twenty or five-and-twenty fathoms. + </p> + <p> + If, as we have supposed, the sea could be suddenly withdrawn from around + an island provided with a fringing reef, such as the Mauritius,<a + href="#linknote-122" name="linknoteref-122" id="linknoteref-122"><small>122</small></a> + the reef would present the aspect of a terrace, its seaward face, one + hundred feet or more high, blooming with the animal flowers of the coral, + while its surface would be hollowed out into a shallow and irregular + moat-like excavation. + </p> + <p> + The coral mud, which occupies the bottom of the lagoon, and with which all + the interstices of the coral skeletons which accumulate to form the reef + are filled up, does not proceed from the washing action of the waves + alone; innumerable fishes, and other creatures which prey upon the coral, + add a very important contribution of finely-triturated calcareous matter; + and the corals and mud becoming incorporated together, gradually harden + and give rise to a sort of limestone rock, which may vary a good deal in + texture. Sometimes it remains friable and chalky, but, more often, the + infiltration of water, charged with carbonic acid, dissolves some of the + calcareous matter, and deposits it elsewhere in the interstices of the + nascent rock, thus glueing and cementing the particles together into a + hard mass; or it may even dissolve the carbonate of lime more extensively, + and re-deposit it in a crystalline form. On the beach of the lagoon, where + the coral sand is washed into layers by the action of the waves, its + grains become thus fused together into strata of a limestone, so hard that + they ring when struck with a hammer, and inclined at a gentle angle, + corresponding with that of the surface of the beach. The hard parts of the + many animals which live upon the reef become imbedded in this coral + limestone, so that a block may be full of shells of bivalves and + univalves, or of sea urchins; and even sometimes encloses the eggs of + turtles in a state of petrification. The active and vigorous growth of the + reef goes on only at the seaward margins, where the polypes are exposed to + the wash of the surf, and are thereby provided with an abundant supply of + air and of food. The interior portion of the reef may be regarded as + almost wholly an accumulation of dead skeletons. Where a river comes down + from the land there is a break in the reef, for the reasons which have + been already mentioned. + </p> + <p> + The origin and mode of formation of a fringing reef, such as that just + described, are plain enough. The embryos of the coral polypes have fixed + themselves upon the submerged shore of the island, as far out as they + could live, namely, to a depth of twenty or twenty-five fathoms. One + generation has succeeded another, building itself up upon the dead + skeletons of its predecessor. The mass has been consolidated by the + infiltration of coral mud, and hardened by partial solution and + redeposition, until a great rampart of coral rock one hundred or one + hundred and fifty feet high on its seaward face has been formed all round + the island, with only such gaps as result from the outflow of rivers, in + the place of sally-ports. + </p> + <p> + The structure of the rocky accumulation in the encircling reefs and in the + atolls is essentially the same as in the fringing reef. But, in addition + to the differences of depth inside and out, they present some other + peculiarities. These reefs, and especially the atolls, are usually + interrupted at one part of their circumference, and this part is always + situated on the leeward side of the reef, or that which is the more + sheltered side. Now, as all these reefs are situated within the region in + which the tradewinds prevail, it follows that, on the north side of the + equator, where the trade-wind is a northeasterly wind, the opening of the + reef is on the southwest side: while in the southern hemisphere, where the + trade-winds blow from the southeast, the opening lies to the northwest. + The curious practical result follows from this structure, that the lagoons + to these reefs really form admirable harbours, if a ship can only get + inside them. But the main difference between the encircling reefs and the + atolls, on the one hand, and the fringing reefs on the other, lies in the + fact of the much greater depth of water on the seaward faces of the + former. As a consequence of this fact, the whole of this face is not, as + it is in the case of the fringing reef, covered with living coral polypes. + For, as we have seen, these polypes cannot live at a greater depth than + about twenty-five fathoms; and actual observation has shown that while, + down to this depth, the sounding-lead will bring up branches of live coral + from the outer wall of such a reef, at a greater depth it fetches to the + surface nothing but dead coral and coral sand. We must, therefore, picture + to ourselves an atoll, or an encircling reef, as fringed for one hundred + feet, or more, from its summit, with coral polypes busily engaged in + fabricating coral; while, below this comparatively narrow belt, its + surface is a bare and smooth expanse of coral sand, supported upon and + within a core of coral limestone. Thus, if the bed of the Pacific were + suddenly laid bare, as was just now supposed, the appearance of the + reef-mountains would be exactly the reverse of that presented by many high + mountains on land. For these are white with snow at the top, while their + bases are clothed with an abundant and gaudily-coloured vegetation. But + the coral cones would look grey and barren below, while their summits + would be gay with a richly-coloured parterre of flowerlike coral polypes. + </p> + <p> + The practical difficulties of sounding upon, and of bringing up portions + of, the seaward face of an atoll or of an encircling reef, are so great, + in consequence of the constant and dangerous swell which sets towards it, + that no exact information concerning the depth to which the reefs are + composed of coral has yet been obtained. There is no reason to doubt, + however, that the reef-cone has the same structure from its summit to its + base, and that its sea-wall is throughout mainly composed of dead coral. + </p> + <p> + And now arises a serious difficulty. If the coral polypes cannot live at a + greater depth than one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet, how can they + have built up the base of the reef-cone, which may be two thousand feet, + or more, below the surface of the sea? + </p> + <p> + In order to get over this objection, it was at one time supposed that the + reef-building polypes had settled upon the summits of a chain of submarine + mountains. But what is there in physical geography to justify the + assumption of the existence of a chain of mountains stretching for one + thousand miles or more, and so nearly of the same height, that none should + rise above the level of the sea, nor fall one hundred and fifty feet below + that level? + </p> + <p> + How, again, on this hypothesis, are atolls to be accounted for, unless, as + some have done, we take refuge in the wild supposition that every atoll + corresponds with the crater of a submarine volcano? And what explanation + does it afford of the fact that, in some parts of the ocean, only atolls + and encircling reefs occur, while others present none but fringing reefs? + </p> + <p> + These and other puzzling facts remained insoluble until the publication, + in the year 1840, of Mr. Darwin's famous work on coral reefs;<a + href="#linknote-123" name="linknoteref-123" id="linknoteref-123"><small>123</small></a> + in which a key was given to all the difficult problems connected with the + subject, and every difficulty was shown to be capable of solution by + deductive reasoning from a happy combination of certain well-established + geological and biological truths. Mr. Darwin, in fact, showed that, so + long as the level of the sea remains unaltered in any area in which coral + reefs are being formed, or if the level of the sea relatively to that of + the land is falling, the only reefs which can be formed are fringing + reefs. While if, on the contrary, the level of the sea is rising + relatively to that of the land, at a rate not faster than that at which + the upward growth of the coral can keep pace with it, the reef will + gradually pass from the condition of a fringing, into that of an + encircling or barrier reef. And, finally, that if the relative level of + the sea rise so much that the encircled land is completely submerged, the + reef must necessarily pass into the condition of an atoll. + </p> + <p> + For, suppose the relative level of the sea to remain stationary, after a + fringing reef has reached that distance from the land at which the depth + of water amounts to one hundred and fifty feet. Then the reef cannot + extend seaward by the migration of coral germs, because these coral germs + would find the bottom of the sea to be too deep for them to live in. And + the only manner in which the reef could extend outwards, would be by the + gradual accumulation, at the foot of its seaward face, of a talus of coral + fragments torn off by the violence of the waves, which talus might, in + course of time, become high enough to bring its upper surface within the + limits of coral growth, and in that manner provide a sort of factitious + sea-bottom upon which the coral embryos might perch. If, on the other + hand, the level of the sea were slowly and gradually lowered, it is clear + that the parts of its bottom originally beyond the limit of coral growth + would gradually be brought within the required distance of the surface, + and thus the reef might be indefinitely extended. But this process would + give rise neither to an encircling reef nor to an atoll, but to a broad + belt of upheaved coral rock, increasing the dimensions of the dry land, + and continuous seawards with the fresh fringing reef. + </p> + <p> + Suppose, however, that the sea-level rose instead of falling, at the same + slow and gradual rate at which we know it to be rising in some parts of + the world,—not more, in fact, than a few inches, or, at most, a foot + or two, in a hundred years. Then, while the reef would be unable to extend + itself seaward, the sea-bottom outside it being gradually more and more + removed from the depth at which the life of the coral polypes is possible, + it would be able to grow upwards as fast as the sea rose. But the growth + would take place almost exclusively around the circumference of the reef, + this being the only region in which the coral polypes would find the + conditions favourable for their existence. The bottom of the lagoon would + be raised, in the main, only by the coral debris and coral mud, formed in + the manner already described; consequently, the margins of the reef would + rise faster than the bottom, or, in other words, the lagoon would + constantly become deeper. And, at the same time, it would gradually + increase in breadth; as the rising sea, covering more of the land, would + occupy a wider space between the edge of the reef and what remained of the + land. Thus the rising sea would eventually convert a large island with a + fringing reef into a small island surrounded by an encircling reef. And it + will be obvious that when the rising of the sea has gone so far as + completely to cover the highest points of the island, the reef will have + passed into the condition of an atoll. + </p> + <p> + But how is it possible that the relative level of the land and sea should + be altered to this extent? Clearly, only in one of two ways: either the + sea must have risen over those areas which are now covered by atolls and + encircling reefs; or, the land upon which the sea rests must have been + depressed to a corresponding extent. + </p> + <p> + If the sea has risen, its rise must have taken place over the whole world + simultaneously, and it must have risen to the same height over all parts + of the coral zone. Grounds have been shown for the belief that the general + level of the sea may have been different at different times; it has been + suggested, for example, that the accumulation of ice about the poles + during one of the cold periods of the earth's history necessarily implies + a diminution in the volume of the sea proportioned to the amount of its + water thus permanently locked up in the Arctic and Antarctic ice-cellars; + while, in the warm periods, the greater or less disappearance of the polar + ice-cap implies a corresponding addition of water to the ocean. And no + doubt this reasoning must be admitted to be sound in principle; though it + is very hard to say what practical effect the additions and subtractions + thus made have had on the level of the ocean; inasmuch as such additions + and subtractions might be either intensified or nullified, by + contemporaneous changes in the level of the land. And no one has yet shown + that any such great melting of polar ice, and consequent raising of the + level of the water of the ocean, has taken place since the existing atolls + began to be formed. + </p> + <p> + In the absence of any evidence that the sea has ever risen to the extent + required to give rise to the encircling reefs and the atolls, Mr. Darwin + adopted the opposite hypothesis, viz., that the land has undergone + extensive and slow depression in those localities in which these + structures exist. + </p> + <p> + It seems, at first, a startling paradox, to suppose that the land is less + fixed than the sea; but that such is the case is the uniform testimony of + geology. Beds of sandstone or limestone, thousands of feet thick, and all + full of marine remains, occur in various parts of the earth's surface, and + prove, beyond a doubt, that when these beds were formed, that portion of + the sea-bottom which they then occupied underwent a slow and gradual + depression to a distance which cannot have been less than the thickness of + those beds, and may have been very much greater. In supposing, therefore, + that the great areas of the Pacific and of the Indian Ocean, over which + atolls and encircling reefs are found scattered, have undergone a + depression of some hundreds, or, it may be, thousands of feet, Mr. Darwin + made a supposition which had nothing forced or improbable, but was + entirely in accordance with what we know to have taken place over + similarly extensive areas, in other periods of the world's history. But + Mr. Darwin subjected his hypothesis to an ingenious indirect test. If his + view be correct, it is clear that neither atolls, nor encircling reefs, + should be found in those portions of the ocean in which we have reason to + believe, on independent grounds, that the sea-bottom has long been either + stationary, or slowly rising. Now it is known that, as a general rule, the + level of the land is either stationary, or is undergoing a slow upheaval, + in the neighborhood of active volcanoes; and, therefore, neither atolls + nor encircling reefs ought to be found in regions in which volcanoes are + numerous and active. And this turns out to be the case. Appended to Mr. + Darwin's great work on coral reefs, there is a map on which atolls and + encircling reefs are indicated by one colour, fringing reefs by another, + and active volcanoes by a third. And it is at once obvious that the lines + of active volcanoes lie around the margins of the areas occupied by the + atolls and the encircling reefs. It is exactly as if the upheaving + volcanic agencies had lifted up the edges of these great areas, while + their centres had undergone a corresponding depression. An atoll area may, + in short, be pictured as a kind of basin, the margins of which have been + pushed up by the subterranean forces, to which the craters of the + volcanoes have, at intervals, given vent. + </p> + <p> + Thus we must imagine the area of the Pacific now covered by the Polynesian + Archipelago, as having been, at some former time, occupied by large + islands, or, may be, by a great continent, with the ordinarily diversified + surface of plain, and hill, and mountain chain. The shores of this great + land were doubtless fringed by coral reefs; and, as it slowly underwent + depression, the hilly regions, converted into islands, became, at first, + surrounded by fringing reefs, and then, as depression went on, these + became converted into encircling reefs, and these, finally, into atolls, + until a maze of reefs and coral-girdled islets took the place of the + original land masses. + </p> + <p> + Thus the atolls and the encircling reefs furnish us with clear, though + indirect, evidence of changes in the physical geography of large parts of + the earth's surface; and even, as my lamented friend, the late Professor + Jukes,<a href="#linknote-124" name="linknoteref-124" id="linknoteref-124"><small>124</small></a> + has suggested, give us indications of the manner in which some of the most + puzzling facts connected with the distribution of animals have been + brought about. For example, Australia and New Guinea are separated by + Torres Straits, a broad belt of sea one hundred or one hundred and twenty + miles wide. Nevertheless, there is in many respects a curious resemblance + between the land animals which inhabit New Guinea and the land animals + which inhabit Australia. But, at the same time, the marine shellfish which + are found in the shallow waters of the shores of New Guinea are quite + different from those which are met with upon the coasts of Australia. Now, + the eastern end of Torres Straits is full of atolls, which, in fact, form + the northern termination of the Great Barrier Reef which skirts the + eastern coast of Australia. It follows, therefore, that the eastern end of + Torres Straits is an area of depression, and it is very possible, and on + many grounds highly probable, that, in former times, Australia and New + Guinea were directly connected together, and that Torres Straits did not + exist. If this were the case, the existence of cassowaries and of + marsupial quadrupeds, both in New Guinea and in Australia, becomes + intelligible; while the difference between the littoral molluscs of the + north and the south shores of Torres Straits is readily explained by the + great probability that, when the depression in question took place, and + what was, at first, an arm of the sea became converted into a strait + separating Australia from New Guinea, the northern shore of this new sea + became tenanted with marine animals from the north, while the southern + shore was peopled by immigrants from the already existing marine + Australian fauna. + </p> + <p> + Inasmuch as the growth of the reef depends upon that of successive + generations of coral polypes, and as each generation takes a certain time + to grow to its full size, and can only separate its calcareous skeleton + from the water in which it lives at a certain rate, it is clear that the + reefs are records not only of changes in physical geography, but of the + lapse of time. It is by no means easy, however, to estimate the exact + value of reef chronology, and the attempts which have been made to + determine the rate at which a reef grows vertically have yielded anything + but precise results. A cautious writer, Mr. Dana,<a href="#linknote-125" + name="linknoteref-125" id="linknoteref-125"><small>125</small></a> whose + extensive study of corals and coral reefs makes him an eminently competent + judge, states his conclusion in the following terms:— + </p> + <p> + "The rate of growth of the common branching madrepore is not over one and + a half inches a year. As the branches are open, this would not be + equivalent to more than half an inch in height of solid coral for the + whole surface covered by the madrepore; and, as they are also porous, to + not over three-eighths of an inch of solid limestone. But a coral + plantation has large bare patches without corals, and the coral sands are + widely distributed by currents, part of them to depths over one hundred + feet where there are no living corals; not more than one-sixth of the + surface of a reef region is, in fact, covered with growing species. This + reduces the three-eighths to ONE-SIXTEENTH. Shells and other organic + relics may contribute one-fourth as much as corals. At the outside, the + average upward increase of the whole reef-ground per year would not exceed + ONE-EIGHTH of an inch. + </p> + <p> + "Now some reefs are at least two thousand feet thick, which at one-eighth + of an inch a year, corresponds to one hundred and ninety-two thousand + years."* + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 591. +</pre> + <p> + Halve, or quarter, this estimate if you will, in order to be certain of + erring upon the right side, and still there remains a prodigious period + during which the ancestors of existing coral polypes have been + undisturbedly at work; and during which, therefore, the climatal + conditions over the coral area must have been much what they are now. + </p> + <p> + And all this lapse of time has occurred within the most recent period of + the history of the earth. The remains of reefs formed by coral polypes of + different kinds from those which exist now, enter largely into the + composition of the limestones of the Jurassic period;<a + href="#linknote-126" name="linknoteref-126" id="linknoteref-126"><small>126</small></a> + and still more widely different coral polypes have contributed their quota + to the vast thickness of the carboniferous and Devonian strata. Then as + regards the latter group of rocks in America, the high authority already + quoted tells us:— + </p> + <p> + "The Upper Helderberg period is eminently the coral reef period of the + palaeozoic ages. Many of the rocks abound in coral, and are as truly coral + reefs as the modern reefs of the Pacific. The corals are sometimes + standing on the rocks in the position they had when growing: others are + lying in fragments, as they were broken and heaped by the waves; and + others were reduced to a compact limestone by the finer trituration before + consolidation into rock. This compact variety is the most common kind + among the coral reef rocks of the present seas; and it often contains but + few distinct fossils, although formed in water that abounded in life. At + the fall of the Ohio, near Louisville, there is a magnificent display of + the old reef. Hemispherical Favosites, five or six feet in diameter, lie + there nearly as perfect as when they were covered by their flowerlike + polypes; and besides these, there are various branching corals, and a + profusion of Cyathophyllia, or cup-corals."* + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 272. +</pre> + <p> + Thus, in all the great periods of the earth's history of which we know + anything, a part of the then living matter has had the form of polypes, + competent to separate from the water of the sea the carbonate of lime + necessary for their own skeletons. Grain by grain, and particle by + particle, they have built up vast masses of rock, the thickness of which + is measured by hundreds of feet, and their area by thousands of square + miles. The slow oscillations of the crust of the earth, producing great + changes in the distribution of land and water, have often obliged the + living matter of the coral-builders to shift the locality of its + operations; and, by variation and adaptation to these modifications of + condition, its forms have as often changed. The work it has done in the + past is, for the most part, swept away, but fragments remain, and, if + there were no other evidence, suffice to prove the general constancy of + the operations of Nature in this world, through periods of almost + inconceivable duration. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NOTES + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AUTOBIOGRAPHY + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ Autobiography: Huxley's + account of this sketch, written in 1889, is as follows: "A man who is + bringing out a series of portraits of celebrities, with a sketch of their + career attached, has bothered me out of my life for something to go with + my portrait, and to escape the abominable bad taste of some of the + notices, I have done that."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ pre-Boswellian epoch: the + time before Boswell. James Boswell (1740-1795) wrote the famous Life of + Samuel Johnson. Mr. Leslie Stephen declares that this book "became the + first specimen of a new literary type." "It is a full-length portrait of a + man's domestic life with enough picturesque detail to enable us to see him + through the eyes of private friendship. . . ." A number of biographers + since Boswell have imitated his method; and Leslie Stephen believes that + "we owe it in some degree to his example that we have such delightful + books as Lockhart's Life of Scott or Mr. Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ "Bene qui latuit, bene + vixit": from Ovid. He who has kept himself well hidden, has lived well.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ Prince George of Cambridge: + the grandson of King George III, second Duke of Cambridge, and + Commander-in-chief of the British Army.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Herbert Spencer (1820—1903): + a celebrated English philosopher and powerful advocate of the doctrine of + evolution. Spencer is regarded as one of the most profound thinkers of + modern times. He was one of Huxley's closest friends.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ in partibus infidelium: in + the domain of the unbelievers.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ "sweet south upon a bed of + violets." Cf. Twelfth Night, Act I, sc. I, l. 5. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound + That breathes upon a bank of violets, + Stealing and giving odour. +</pre> + <p> + For the reading "sweet south" instead of "sweet sound," see Rolfe's + edition of Twelfth Night.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ "Lehrjahre": + apprenticeship. + </p> + <p> + Charing Cross School of Medicine: a school connected with the Charing + Cross Hospital in the Strand, London.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ Nelson: Horatio Nelson, a + celebrated English Admiral born in Norfolk, England, 1758, and died on + board the Victory at Trafalgar, 1805. It was before the battle off Cape + Trafalgar that Nelson hoisted his famous signal, "England expects every + man will do his duty." Cf. Tennyson's Ode to the Duke of Wellington, + stanza VI, for a famous tribute to Nelson.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ middies: abbreviated form + for midshipmen.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ Suites a Buffon: sequels + to Buffon. Buffon (1707-1781) was a French naturalist who wrote many + volumes on science.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-12" id="linknote-12"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ Linnean Society: a + scientific society formed in 1788 under the auspices of several fellows of + the Royal Society.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-13" id="linknote-13"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 13 (<a href="#linknoteref-13">return</a>)<br /> [ Royal Society: The Royal + Society for Improving Natural Knowledge; the oldest scientific society in + Great Britain, and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded by Charles + II, in 1660, its nucleus being an association of learned men already in + existence. It is supposed to be identical with the Invisible College which + Boyle mentions in 1646. It was incorporated under the name of The Royal + Society in 1661. The publications of the Royal Society are called + Philosophical Transactions. The society has close connection with the + government, and has assisted the government in various important + scientific undertakings among which may be mentioned Parry's North Pole + expedition. The society also distributes $20,000 yearly for the promotion + of scientific research.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-14" id="linknote-14"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 14 (<a href="#linknoteref-14">return</a>)<br /> [ Rastignac: a character in + Le Pere Goriot. At the close of the story Rastignac says, "A nous deux, + maintenant":—Henceforth there is war between us.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-15" id="linknote-15"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 15 (<a href="#linknoteref-15">return</a>)<br /> [ Pere Goriot: a novel of + Balzac's with a plot similar to King Lear.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-16" id="linknote-16"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 16 (<a href="#linknoteref-16">return</a>)<br /> [ Professor Tyndall + (1820-1893): a distinguished British physicist and member of the Royal + Society. He explored with Huxley the glaciers of Switzerland. His work in + electricity, radiant heat, light and acoustics gave him a foremost place + in science.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-17" id="linknote-17"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 17 (<a href="#linknoteref-17">return</a>)<br /> [ Ecclesiastical spirit: + the spirit manifested by the clergy of England in Huxley's time against + the truths of science. The clergy considered scientific truth to be + disastrous to religious truth. Huxley's attitude toward the teaching of + religious truth is illuminated by this quotation, which he uses to explain + his own position: "I have the fullest confidence that in the reading and + explaining of the Bible, what the children will be taught will be the + great truths of Christian Life and conduct, which all of us desire they + should know, and that no effort will be made to cram into their poor + little minds, theological dogmas which their tender age prevents them from + understanding." Huxley defines his idea of a church as a place in which, + "week by week, services should be devoted, not to the iteration of + abstract propositions in theology, but to the setting before men's minds + of an ideal of true, just and pure living; a place in which those who are + weary of the burden of daily cares should find a moment's rest in the + contemplation of the higher life which is possible for all, though + attained by so few; a place in which the man of strife and of business + should have time to think how small, after all, are the rewards he covets + compared with peace and charity."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-18" id="linknote-18"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 18 (<a href="#linknoteref-18">return</a>)<br /> [ New Reformation: Huxley + writes: "We are in the midst of a gigantic movement greater than that + which preceded and produced the Reformation, and really only the + continuation of that movement. . . . But this organization will be the + work of generations of men, and those who further it most will be those + who teach men to rest in no lie, and to rest in no verbal delusion."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE (1866) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-19" id="linknote-19"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 19 (<a href="#linknoteref-19">return</a>)<br /> [ On the Advisableness of + Improving Natural Knowledge: from Method and Results: also published in + Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.] + </p> + <p> + For the history of the times mentioned in this essay, see Green's Short + History of the English People.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-20" id="linknote-20"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 20 (<a href="#linknoteref-20">return</a>)<br /> [ The very spot: St. + Martin's Borough Hall and Public Library, on Charing Cross Road, near + Trafalgar Square.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-21" id="linknote-21"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 21 (<a href="#linknoteref-21">return</a>)<br /> [ Defoe (1661-1731): an + English novelist and political writer. On account of his political + writings Defoe was sentenced to stand in the pillory, and to be + "imprisoned during the Queen's pleasure." During this imprisonment he + wrote many articles. Later in life he wrote Robinson Crusoe, The Fortunes + and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, Journal of the Plague Year, and other + books less well known.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-22" id="linknote-22"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 22 (<a href="#linknoteref-22">return</a>)<br /> [ unholy cursing and + crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys: John Wilmot, the second Earl + of Rochester, and Sir Charles Sedley, were both friends of Charles II, and + were noted for biting wit and profligacy. Green, in his Short History of + the English People, thus describes them: "Lord Rochester was a fashionable + poet, and the titles of some of his poems are such as no pen of our day + could copy. Sir Charles Sedley was a fashionable wit, and the foulness of + his words made even the porters in the Covent Garden belt him from the + balcony when he ventured to address them."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-23" id="linknote-23"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 23 (<a href="#linknoteref-23">return</a>)<br /> [ Laud: Archbishop of + Canterbury. Laud was born in 1573, and beheaded at London in 1645. He was + throughout the reign of Charles I a staunch supporter of the King. He was + impeached by the Long Parliament in 1640 and executed on Tower Hill, in + 1645.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-24" id="linknote-24"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 24 (<a href="#linknoteref-24">return</a>)<br /> [ selenography: the + scientific study of the moon with special reference to its physical + condition.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-25" id="linknote-25"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 25 (<a href="#linknoteref-25">return</a>)<br /> [ Torricellian experiment: + a reference to the discovery of the principle of the barometer by the + Italian, Torricelli, in 1643.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-26" id="linknote-26"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 26 (<a href="#linknoteref-26">return</a>)<br /> [ Sir Francis Bacon + (1561-1626): Bacon endeavored to teach that civilization cannot be brought + to a high point except as man applies himself to the study of the secrets + of nature, and uses these discoveries for inventions which will give him + power over his environment. The chief value of the work was that it called + attention to the uses of induction and to the experimental study of facts. + See Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy, page 243.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-27" id="linknote-27"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 27 (<a href="#linknoteref-27">return</a>)<br /> [ The learned Dr. Wallis + (1616-1703): Dr. Wallis is regarded as the greatest of Newton's + predecessors in mathematical history. His works are numerous and are on a + great variety of subjects. He was one of the first members of the Royal + Society.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-28" id="linknote-28"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 28 (<a href="#linknoteref-28">return</a>)<br /> [ "New Philosophy": Bacon's + ideas on science and philosophy as set forth in his works.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-29" id="linknote-29"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 29 (<a href="#linknoteref-29">return</a>)<br /> [ Royal Society: see note, + page 11.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-30" id="linknote-30"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 30 (<a href="#linknoteref-30">return</a>)<br /> [ Newton, Sir Isaac + (1642-1721): a distinguished natural philosopher of England. Newton was + elected a member of the Royal Society in 1672. His most important + scientific accomplishment was the establishing of the law of universal + gravitation. The story of the fall of the apple was first related by + Voltaire to whom it was given by Newton's niece.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-31" id="linknote-31"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 31 (<a href="#linknoteref-31">return</a>)<br /> [ "Philosophical + Transactions": the publications of the Royal Society.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-32" id="linknote-32"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 32 (<a href="#linknoteref-32">return</a>)<br /> [ Galileo (1564-1642): a + famous Italian astronomer. His most noted work was the construction of the + thermometer and a telescope. He discovered the satellites of Jupiter in + 1610. In 1610, also, he observed the sun's spots. His views were condemned + by the Pope in 1616 and in 1633 he was forced by the Inquisition to abjure + the Copernican theory.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-33" id="linknote-33"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 33 (<a href="#linknoteref-33">return</a>)<br /> [ Vesalius (1514-1564): a + noted Belgian anatomist.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-34" id="linknote-34"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 34 (<a href="#linknoteref-34">return</a>)<br /> [ Harvey (1578-1657): an + English physiologist and anatomist. He is noted especially for his + discovery of the circulation of the blood.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-35" id="linknote-35"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 35 (<a href="#linknoteref-35">return</a>)<br /> [ Subtle speculations: + Selby gives examples from questions discussed by Thomas Aquinas. Whether + all angels belong to the same genus, whether demons are evil by nature, or + by will, whether they can change one substance into another, . . . whether + an angel can move from one point to another without passing through + intermediate space.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-36" id="linknote-36"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 36 (<a href="#linknoteref-36">return</a>)<br /> [ Schoolmen: a term used to + designate the followers of scholasticism, a philosophy of dogmatic + religion which assumed a certain subject-matter as absolute and + unquestionable. The duty of the Schoolman was to explain church doctrine; + these explanations were characterized by fine distinctions and by an + absence of real content. See Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy; + also Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-37" id="linknote-37"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 37 (<a href="#linknoteref-37">return</a>)<br /> [ "writ in water": an + allusion to Keats' request that the words "Here lies one whose name was + writ in water" be his epitaph. The words are inscribed on his tomb in the + Protestant Cemetery at Rome.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-38" id="linknote-38"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 38 (<a href="#linknoteref-38">return</a>)<br /> [ Lord Brouncker: The first + president of the Royal Society after its incorporation in 1662 was Lord + Brouneker.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-39" id="linknote-39"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 39 (<a href="#linknoteref-39">return</a>)<br /> [ revenant: ghost.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-40" id="linknote-40"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 40 (<a href="#linknoteref-40">return</a>)<br /> [ Boyle: Robert Boyle + (1627-1691): a British chemist and natural philosopher who was noted + especially for his discovery of Boyle's law of the elasticity of air.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-41" id="linknote-41"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 41 (<a href="#linknoteref-41">return</a>)<br /> [ Evelyn (1620-1706): an + English author and member of the Royal Society. His most important work is + the Diary, valuable for the full account which it gives of the manners and + customs of the time.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-42" id="linknote-42"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 42 (<a href="#linknoteref-42">return</a>)<br /> [ The Restoration: In + English history the re-establishing of the English monarchy with the + return of King Charles II in 1660; by extension the whole reign of Charles + II: as, the dramatists of the Restoration. Century Dictionary.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-43" id="linknote-43"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 43 (<a href="#linknoteref-43">return</a>)<br /> [ Aladdin's lamps: a + reference to the story of the Wonderful Lamp in the Arabian Nights. The + magic lamp brought marvelous good fortune to the poor widow's son who + possessed it. Cf. also Lowell's Aladdin:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + When I was a beggarly boy, + And lived in a cellar damp, + I had not a friend or a toy, + But I had Aladdin's lamp; + When I could not sleep for the cold, + I had fire enough in my brain, + And builded, with roofs of gold, + My beautiful castles in Spain!] +</pre> + <p> + <a name="linknote-44" id="linknote-44"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 44 (<a href="#linknoteref-44">return</a>)<br /> [ "When in heaven the + stars": from Tennyson's Specimens of a Translation of the Iliad in Blank + Verse.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-45" id="linknote-45"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 45 (<a href="#linknoteref-45">return</a>)<br /> [ "increasing God's honour + and bettering man's estate": Bacon's statement of his purpose in writing + the Advancement of Learning.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-46" id="linknote-46"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 46 (<a href="#linknoteref-46">return</a>)<br /> [ For example, etc.: could + the sentence beginning thus be written in better form?] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-47" id="linknote-47"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 47 (<a href="#linknoteref-47">return</a>)<br /> [ Rumford (1738-1814): + Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an eminent scientist. Rumford was born + in America and educated at Harvard. Suspected of loyalty to the King at + the time of the revolution, he was imprisoned. Acquitted, he went to + England where he became prominent in politics and science. Invested with + the title of Count by the Holy Roman Empire, he chose Rumford for his + title after the name of the little New Hampshire town where he had taught. + He gave a large sum of money to Harvard College to found the Rumford + professorship of science.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-48" id="linknote-48"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 48 (<a href="#linknoteref-48">return</a>)<br /> [ eccentric: out of the + centre.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A LIBERAL EDUCATION (1868) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-49" id="linknote-49"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 49 (<a href="#linknoteref-49">return</a>)<br /> [ A Liberal Education: from + Science and Education; also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and + Reviews.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-50" id="linknote-50"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 50 (<a href="#linknoteref-50">return</a>)<br /> [ Ichabod: cf. 1 Sam. iv, + 21.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-51" id="linknote-51"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 51 (<a href="#linknoteref-51">return</a>)<br /> [ senior wranglership: in + Cambridge University, England, one who has attained the first class in the + elementary division of the public examination for honors in pure and mixed + mathematics, commonly called the mathematical tripos, those who compose + the second rank of honors being designated senior optimes, and those of + the third order junior optimes. The student taking absolutely the first + place in the mathematical tripos used to be called senior wrangler, those + following next in the same division being respectively termed second, + third, fourth, etc., wranglers. Century Dictionary.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-52" id="linknote-52"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 52 (<a href="#linknoteref-52">return</a>)<br /> [ double-first: any + candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Oxford University who + takes first-class honors in both classics and mathematics is said to have + won a double-first.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-53" id="linknote-53"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 53 (<a href="#linknoteref-53">return</a>)<br /> [ Retzsch (1779-1857): a + well-known German painter and engraver.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-54" id="linknote-54"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 54 (<a href="#linknoteref-54">return</a>)<br /> [ Test-Act: an English + statute of 1673. It compelled all persons holding office under the crown + to take the oaths of supremacy and of allegiance, to receive the sacrament + according to the usage of the Church of England, and to subscribe to the + Declaration against Transubstantiation.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-55" id="linknote-55"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 55 (<a href="#linknoteref-55">return</a>)<br /> [ Poll: an abbreviation and + transliteration of [Footnote Greek words], "the mob"; university slang for + the whole body of students taking merely the degree of Bachelor of Arts, + at Cambridge.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-56" id="linknote-56"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 56 (<a href="#linknoteref-56">return</a>)<br /> [ pluck: the rejection of a + student, after examinations, who does not come up to the standard.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON A PIECE OF CHALK + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-57" id="linknote-57"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 57 (<a href="#linknoteref-57">return</a>)<br /> [ On a Piece of Chalk: a + lecture to working-men from Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-58" id="linknote-58"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 58 (<a href="#linknoteref-58">return</a>)<br /> [ Needles of the Isle of + Wight: the needles are three white, pointed rocks of chalk, resting on + dark-colored bases, and rising abruptly from the sea to a height of 100 + feet. Baedeker's Great Britain.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-59" id="linknote-59"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 59 (<a href="#linknoteref-59">return</a>)<br /> [ Lulworth in Dorset, to + Flamborough Head: Lulworth is on the southern coast of England, west of + the Isle of Wight: Flamborough Head is on the northeastern coast of + England and extends into the German Ocean.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-60" id="linknote-60"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 60 (<a href="#linknoteref-60">return</a>)<br /> [ Weald: a name given to an + oval-shaped chalk area in England, beginning near the Straits of Dover, + and extending into the counties of Kent, Surrey, Hants, and Sussex.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-61" id="linknote-61"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 61 (<a href="#linknoteref-61">return</a>)<br /> [ Lieut. Brooke: Brooke + devised an apparatus for deep-sea sounding from which the weight necessary + to sink the instrument rapidly, was detached when it reached the bottom. + The object was to relieve the strain on the rope caused by rapid + soundings. Improved apparatuses have been invented since the time of + Brooke.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-62" id="linknote-62"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 62 (<a href="#linknoteref-62">return</a>)<br /> [ Ehrenberg (1795-1876): a + German naturalist noted for his studies of Infusoria.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-63" id="linknote-63"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 63 (<a href="#linknoteref-63">return</a>)<br /> [ Bailey of West Point + (1811-1857): an American naturalist noted for his researches in + microscopy.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-64" id="linknote-64"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 64 (<a href="#linknoteref-64">return</a>)<br /> [ enterprise of laying down + the telegraph-cable: the first Atlantic telegraph-cable between England + and America was laid in 1858 by Cyrus W. Field of New York. Messages were + sent over it for a few weeks; then it ceased to act. A permanent cable was + laid by Mr. Field in 1866.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-65" id="linknote-65"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 65 (<a href="#linknoteref-65">return</a>)<br /> [ Dr. Wallich (1786-1854): + a Danish botanist and member of the Royal Society.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-66" id="linknote-66"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 66 (<a href="#linknoteref-66">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Sorby: President of + the Geological Society of England, and author of many papers on subjects + connected with physical geography.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-67" id="linknote-67"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 67 (<a href="#linknoteref-67">return</a>)<br /> [ Sir Charles Lyell + (1797-1875): a British geologist, and one of the first to uphold Darwin's + Origin of Species.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-68" id="linknote-68"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 68 (<a href="#linknoteref-68">return</a>)<br /> [ Echinus: the sea-urchin; + an animal which dwells in a spheroidal shell built up from polygonal + plates, and covered with sharp spines.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-69" id="linknote-69"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 69 (<a href="#linknoteref-69">return</a>)<br /> [ Somme: a river of + northern France which flows into the English Channel northeast of Dieppe.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-70" id="linknote-70"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 70 (<a href="#linknoteref-70">return</a>)<br /> [ the chipped flints of + Hoxne and Amiens: the rude instruments which were made by primitive man + were of chipped flint. Numerous discoveries of large flint implements have + been made in the north of France, near Amiens, and in England. The first + noted flint implements were discovered in Hoxne, Suffolk, England, 1797. + Cf. Evans' Ancient Stone Implements and Lyell's Antiquity of Man.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-71" id="linknote-71"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 71 (<a href="#linknoteref-71">return</a>)<br /> [ Rev. Mr. Gunn + (1800-1881): an English naturalist. Mr. Gunn sent from Tasmania a large + number of plants and animals now in the British Museum.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-72" id="linknote-72"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 72 (<a href="#linknoteref-72">return</a>)<br /> [ "the whirligig of time": + cf. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act V, se. I, l. 395.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-73" id="linknote-73"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 73 (<a href="#linknoteref-73">return</a>)<br /> [ Euphrates and Hiddekel: + cf. Genesis ii, 14.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-74" id="linknote-74"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 74 (<a href="#linknoteref-74">return</a>)<br /> [ the great river, the + river of Babylon: cf. Genesis xv, 18] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-75" id="linknote-75"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 75 (<a href="#linknoteref-75">return</a>)<br /> [ Without haste, but + without rest: from Goethe's Zahme Xenien. In a letter to his sister, + Huxley says: "And then perhaps by the following of my favorite motto,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "'Wie das Gestirn, + Ohne Hast, + Ohne Rast'— + + something may be done, and some of Sister Lizzie's fond + imaginations turn out not altogether untrue." The quotation entire + is as follows:— + + Wie das Gestirn, + Ohne Hast, + Aber ohne Rast, + Drehe sich jeder + Um die eigne Last.] +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION (1882) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-76" id="linknote-76"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 76 (<a href="#linknoteref-76">return</a>)<br /> [ The Principal Subjects of + Education: an extract from the essay, Science and Art in Relation to + Education.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-77" id="linknote-77"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 77 (<a href="#linknoteref-77">return</a>)<br /> [ this discussion: "this" + refers to the last sentence in the preceding paragraph, in which Huxley + says that it will be impossible to determine the amount of time to be + given to the principal subjects of education until it is determined "what + the principal subjects of education ought to be."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-78" id="linknote-78"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 78 (<a href="#linknoteref-78">return</a>)<br /> [ Francis Bacon: cf. note + [Footnote 26].] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-79" id="linknote-79"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 79 (<a href="#linknoteref-79">return</a>)<br /> [ the best chance of being + happy: In connection with Huxley's work on the London School Board, his + biographer says that Huxley did not regard "intellectual training only + from the utilitarian point of view; he insisted, e. g., on the value of + reading for amusement as one of the most valuable uses to hardworked + people."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-80" id="linknote-80"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 80 (<a href="#linknoteref-80">return</a>)<br /> [ "Harmony in grey": cf. + with l. 34 in Browning's Andrea del Sarto.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-81" id="linknote-81"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 81 (<a href="#linknoteref-81">return</a>)<br /> [ Hobbes (1588-1679): noted + for his views of human nature and of politics. According to Minto, "The + merits ascribed to his style are brevity, simplicity and precision."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-82" id="linknote-82"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 82 (<a href="#linknoteref-82">return</a>)<br /> [ Bishop Berkeley + (1685-1753): an Irish prelate noted for his philosophical writings and + especially for his theory of vision which was the foundation for modern + investigations of the subject. "His style has always been esteemed + admirable; simple, felicitous and sweetly melodious. His dialogues are + sustained with great skill." Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-83" id="linknote-83"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 83 (<a href="#linknoteref-83">return</a>)<br /> [ We have been recently + furnished with in prose: The Iliad of Homer translated by Lang, Leaf and + Myers, the first edition of which appeared in 1882, is probably the one to + which Huxley refers. The Odyssey, translated by Butcher and Lang, appeared + in 1879. Among the best of the more recent translations of Homer are the + Odyssey by George Herbert Palmer; the Iliad by Arthur S. Way, and the + Odyssey by the same author.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-84" id="linknote-84"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 84 (<a href="#linknoteref-84">return</a>)<br /> [ Locke (1632-1704): an + English philosopher of great influence. His chief work is An Essay + Concerning Human Understanding.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-85" id="linknote-85"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 85 (<a href="#linknoteref-85">return</a>)<br /> [ Franciscus Bacon sic + cogitavit: thus Francis Bacon thought.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION (1863) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-86" id="linknote-86"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 86 (<a href="#linknoteref-86">return</a>)<br /> [ The Method of Scientific + Investigation is an extract from the third of six lectures given to + workingmen on The Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature in + Darwiniana.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-87" id="linknote-87"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 87 (<a href="#linknoteref-87">return</a>)<br /> [ these terrible apparatus: + apparatus is the form for both the singular and plural; apparatuses is + another form for the plural.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-88" id="linknote-88"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 88 (<a href="#linknoteref-88">return</a>)<br /> [ Incident in one of + Moliere's plays: the allusion is to the hero, M. Jourdain in the play, "La + Bourgeois Gentilbomme."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-89" id="linknote-89"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 89 (<a href="#linknoteref-89">return</a>)<br /> [ these kind: modern + writers regard kind as singular. Shakespeare treated it as a plural noun, + as "These kind of knaves I knew."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-90" id="linknote-90"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 90 (<a href="#linknoteref-90">return</a>)<br /> [ Newton: cf. [Footnote + 30].] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-91" id="linknote-91"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 91 (<a href="#linknoteref-91">return</a>)<br /> [ Laplace (1749-1827): a + celebrated French astronomer and mathematician. He is best known for his + theory of the formation of the planetary systems, the so-called "nebular + hypothesis." Until recently this hypothesis has generally been accepted in + its main outlines. It is now being supplanted by the "Spiral Nebular + Hypothesis" developed by Professors Moulton and Chamberlin of the + University of Chicago. See Moulton's Introduction to Astronomy, p. 463.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE (1868) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-92" id="linknote-92"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 92 (<a href="#linknoteref-92">return</a>)<br /> [ On the Physical Basis of + Life: from Methods and Results; also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses + and Reviews. "The substance of this paper was contained in a discourse + which was delivered in Edinburgh on the evening of Sunday, the 8th of + November, 1868—being the first of a series of Sunday evening + addresses upon non-theological topics, instituted by the Rev. J. + Cranbrook. Some phrases, which could possess only a transitory and local + interest, have been omitted; instead of the newspaper report of the + Archbishop of York's address, his Grace's subsequently published pamphlet + On the Limits of Philosophical inquiry is quoted, and I have, here and + there, endeavoured to express my meaning more fully and clearly than I + seem to have done in speaking—if I may judge by sundry criticisms + upon what I am supposed to have said, which have appeared. But in + substance, and, so far as my recollection serves, in form, what is here + written corresponds with what was there said."—Huxley.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-93" id="linknote-93"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 93 (<a href="#linknoteref-93">return</a>)<br /> [ Finner whale: a name + given to a whale which has a dorsal fin. A Finner whale commonly measures + from 60 to 90 feet in length.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-94" id="linknote-94"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 94 (<a href="#linknoteref-94">return</a>)<br /> [ A fortiori: with stronger + reason: still more conclusively.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-95" id="linknote-95"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 95 (<a href="#linknoteref-95">return</a>)<br /> [ well-known epigram: from + Goethe's Venetianische Epigramme. The following is a translation of the + passage: Why do the people push each other and shout? They want to work + for their living, bring forth children; and feed them as well as they + possibly can. . . . No man can attain to more, however much he may pretend + to the contrary.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-96" id="linknote-96"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 96 (<a href="#linknoteref-96">return</a>)<br /> [ Maelstroms: a celebrated + whirlpool or violent current in the Arctic Ocean, near the western coast + of Norway, between the islands of Moskenaso and Mosken, formerly supposed + to suck in and destroy everything that approached it at any time, but now + known not to be dangerous except under certain conditions. Century + Dictionary. Cf. also Poe's Descent into the Maelstrom.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-97" id="linknote-97"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 97 (<a href="#linknoteref-97">return</a>)<br /> [ Milne-Edwards + (1800-1885): a French naturalist. His Elements de Zoologie won him a great + reputation.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-98" id="linknote-98"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 98 (<a href="#linknoteref-98">return</a>)<br /> [ with such qualifications + as arises: a typographical error.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-99" id="linknote-99"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 99 (<a href="#linknoteref-99">return</a>)<br /> [ De Bary (1831-1888): a + German botanist noted especially for his researches in cryptogamic + botany.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-100" id="linknote-100"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 100 (<a href="#linknoteref-100">return</a>)<br /> [ No Man's Land: Huxley + probably intends no specific geographical reference. The expression is + common as a designation of some remote and unfrequented locality.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-101" id="linknote-101"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 101 (<a href="#linknoteref-101">return</a>)<br /> [ Kuhne (1837-1900): a + German physiologist and professor of science at Amsterdam and Heidelberg.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-102" id="linknote-102"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 102 (<a href="#linknoteref-102">return</a>)<br /> [ Debemur morti nos + nostraque: Horace—Ars Poetica, line 63. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + As forests change their foliage year by year, + Leaves, that come first, first fall and disappear; + So antique words die out, and in their room, + Others spring up, of vigorous growth and bloom; + Ourselves and all that's ours, to death are due, + And why should words not be mortal too? +</pre> + <p> + Martin's translation.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-103" id="linknote-103"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 103 (<a href="#linknoteref-103">return</a>)<br /> [ peau de chagrin: skin + of a wild ass.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-104" id="linknote-104"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 104 (<a href="#linknoteref-104">return</a>)<br /> [ Balzac (1799-1850): a + celebrated French novelist of the realistic school of fiction.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-105" id="linknote-105"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 105 (<a href="#linknoteref-105">return</a>)<br /> [ Barmecide feast: the + allusion is to a story in the Arabian Nights in which a member of the + Barmecide family places a succession of empty dishes before a beggar, + pretending that they contain a rich repast.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-106" id="linknote-106"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 106 (<a href="#linknoteref-106">return</a>)<br /> [ modus operandi: method + of working.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-107" id="linknote-107"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 107 (<a href="#linknoteref-107">return</a>)<br /> [ Martinus Scriblerus: a + reference to Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus written principally by John + Arbuthnot, and published in 1741. The purpose of the papers is given by + Warburton and Spence in the following extracts quoted from the Preface to + the Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus + Scriblerus in Elwin and Courthope's edition of Pope's works, vol. x, p. + 273:— "Mr. Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Dr. Swift, in conjunction, + formed the project of a satire on the abuses of human learning; and to + make it better received, proposed to execute it in the manner of Cervantes + (the original author of this species of satire) under a continued + narrative of feigned adventures. They had observed that those abuses still + kept their ground against all that the ablest and gravest authors could + say to discredit them; they concluded, therefore, the force of ridicule + was wanting to quicken their disgrace; and ridicule was here in its place, + when the abuses had been already detected by sober reasoning; and truth in + no danger to suffer by the premature use of so powerful an instrument."] + </p> + <p> + "The design of this work, as stated by Pope himself, is to ridicule all + the false tastes in learning under the character of a man of capacity + enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but injudiciously in + each. It was begun by a club of some of the greatest wits of the age—Lord + Oxford, the Bishop of Rochester, Pope, Congreve, Swift, Arbuthnot, and + others. Gay often held the pen; and Addison liked it very well, and was + not disinclined to come into it."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-108" id="linknote-108"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 108 (<a href="#linknoteref-108">return</a>)<br /> [ accounted for the + operation of the meat-jack: from the paper "To the learned inquisitor into + nature, Martinus Scriblerus: the society of free thinkers greeting." Elwin + and Courthope, Pope's works, vol. ?, p. 332.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-109" id="linknote-109"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 109 (<a href="#linknoteref-109">return</a>)<br /> [ The remainder of the + essay endeavors to meet the charge of materialism. The following is the + conclusion:—"In itself it is of little moment whether we express the + phaenomena of matter in terms of spirit; or the phaenomena of spirit in + terms of matter: matter may be regarded as a form of thought, thought may + be regarded as a property of matter—each statement has a certain + relative truth. But with a view to the progress of science, the + materialistic terminology is in every way to be preferred. For it connects + thought with the other phaenomena of the universe, and suggests inquiry + into the nature of those physical conditions, or concomitants of thought, + which are more or less accessible to us, and a knowledge of which may, in + future, help us to exercise the same kind of control over the world of + thought, as we already possess in respect of the material world; whereas, + the alternative, or spiritualistic, terminology is utterly barren, and + leads to nothing but obscurity and confusion of ideas. + </p> + <p> + "Thus there can be little doubt, that the further science advances, the + more extensively and consistently will all the phaenomena of Nature be + represented by materialistic formulae and symbols. But the man of science, + who, forgetting the limits of philosophical inquiry, slides from these + formulae and symbols into what is commonly understood by materialism, + seems to me to place himself on a level with the mathematician, who should + mistake the x's and y's with which he works his problems, for real + entities—and with this further disadvantage, as compared with the + mathematician, that the blunders of the latter are of no practical + consequence, while the errors of systematic materialism may paralyze the + energies and destroy the beauty of a life."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS (1870) + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-110" id="linknote-110"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 110 (<a href="#linknoteref-110">return</a>)<br /> [ On Coral and Coral + Reefs: from Critiques and Addresses. The essay was published in 1870.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-111" id="linknote-111"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 111 (<a href="#linknoteref-111">return</a>)<br /> [ Sic et curalium: Thus + also the coral, as soon as it touches the air turns hard. It was a soft + plant under the water.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-112" id="linknote-112"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 112 (<a href="#linknoteref-112">return</a>)<br /> [ Boccone (1633-1704): a + noted Sicilian naturalist.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-113" id="linknote-113"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 113 (<a href="#linknoteref-113">return</a>)<br /> [ Marsigli (1658-1730): + an Italian soldier and naturalist. He wrote A Physical History of the + Sea.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-114" id="linknote-114"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 114 (<a href="#linknoteref-114">return</a>)<br /> [ "Traite du Corail": "I + made the coral bloom in vases full of sea-water, and I noticed that what + we believe to be the flower of this so-called plant was in reality only an + insect similar to a little nettle or polype. I had the pleasure to see the + paws or feet of this nettle move, and having placed the vase full of water + in which the coral was, near the fire, at a moderate heat, all the little + insects expanded, the nettle stretched out its feet and formed what M. de + Marsigli and I had taken for the petals of the flower. The calyx of this + so-called flower is the very body of the animal issued from its cell."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-115" id="linknote-115"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 115 (<a href="#linknoteref-115">return</a>)<br /> [ Reaumur (1683-1757): a + French physiologist and naturalist, best known as the inventor of the + Reaumur thermometer. He was a member of the French Academy of Science.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-116" id="linknote-116"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 116 (<a href="#linknoteref-116">return</a>)<br /> [ Bishop Wilson: Thomas + Wilson (1663-1755), bishop of the Isle of Man. Details of his life are + given in the folio edition of his works (1782). An appreciation of his + religious writings is given by Matthew Arnold in Culture and Anarchy. + Bishop Wilson's words, "To make reason and the will of God prevail," are + the theme of Arnold's essay, Sweetness and Light.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-117" id="linknote-117"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 117 (<a href="#linknoteref-117">return</a>)<br /> [ An eminent modern + writer: Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), eldest son of Thomas Arnold, + headmaster of Rugby; a distinguished critic and poet, and professor of + poetry at Oxford. The allusion is to Arnold's essay, Sweetness and Light. + The phrase, "sweetness and light," is one which Aesop uses in Swift's + Battle of the Books to sum up the superiority of the ancients over the + moderns. "As for us, the ancients, we are content, with the bee, to + pretend to nothing of our own beyond our wings and our voice, that is to + say, our flights and our language; for the rest, whatever we have got has + been by infinite labor and search, and ranging through every corner of + nature; the difference is, that instead of dirt and poison we have rather + chose to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with + the two noblest things, which are sweetness and light." Arnold's purpose + in the essay is to define the cultured man as one who endeavors to make + beauty and intelligence prevail everywhere.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-118" id="linknote-118"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 118 (<a href="#linknoteref-118">return</a>)<br /> [ Abbe Trembley + (1700-1784): a Swiss naturalist. He wrote "Memoires pour servir a + l'histoire d'un genre de polypes d'eau douce, a bras en forme de cornes."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-119" id="linknote-119"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 119 (<a href="#linknoteref-119">return</a>)<br /> [ Bernard de Jussieu + (1699-1776): a French botanist; founder of the natural classification of + plants. He was superintendent of the Trianon Gardens.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-120" id="linknote-120"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 120 (<a href="#linknoteref-120">return</a>)<br /> [ Guettard (1715-1786): a + French naturalist.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-121" id="linknote-121"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 121 (<a href="#linknoteref-121">return</a>)<br /> [ Monte Nuovo within the + old crater of Somma: Monte Nuovo, a mountain west of Naples; Somma, a + mountain north of Vesuvius which with its lofty, semicircular cliff + encircles the active cone of Vesuvius.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-122" id="linknote-122"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 122 (<a href="#linknoteref-122">return</a>)<br /> [ Mauritius: an island in + the Indian Ocean; Huxley visited the island when on the voyage with the + Rattlesnake. He wrote to his mother of his visit: "This island is, you + know, the scene of Saint Pierre's beautiful story of Paul and Virginia, + over which I suppose most people have sentimentalized at one time or + another of their lives. Until we reached here I did not know that the tale + was like the lady's improver—a fiction founded on fact, and that + Paul and Virginia were at one time flesh and blood, and that their + veritable dust was buried at Pamplemousses in a spot considered as one of + the lions of the place, and visited as classic ground."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-123" id="linknote-123"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 123 (<a href="#linknoteref-123">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Darwin's coral + reefs: The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, published in 1848.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-124" id="linknote-124"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 124 (<a href="#linknoteref-124">return</a>)<br /> [ Professor Jukes + (1811-1869): an English geologist.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-125" id="linknote-125"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 125 (<a href="#linknoteref-125">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Dana (1813-1895): a + well-known American geologist and mineralogist; a professor at Yale from + 1845. He wrote a number of books among which is Coral and Coral Reefs.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-126" id="linknote-126"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 126 (<a href="#linknoteref-126">return</a>)<br /> [ Jurassic period: that + part of the geological series which is older than the Cretaceous and newer + than the Triassic; so called from the predominance of rocks of this age in + the Jura Mountains. The three great divisions of fossiliferous rocks are + called the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REFERENCE BOOKS + </h2> + <p> + The following reference books are suggested for a more complete treatment + of various points in the text:—Andrews' History of England. Green's + Short History of the English People. Traill's Social England. Roger's A + Student's History of Philosophy. Royce's The Spirit of Modern Philosophy. + Huxley's Life and Letters. Smalley's Mr. Huxley, in Scribner's Magazine + for October, 1905. Darwin's Life and Letters. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Autobiography and Selected Essays, by +Thomas Henry Huxley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 1315-h.htm or 1315-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/1315/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Autobiography and Selected Essays + +Author: Thomas Henry Huxley + +Release Date: May 3, 2006 [EBook #1315] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED ESSAYS + +by + +Thomas Henry Huxley + + + + Note: The notes at the end of the book were originally + referenced by page number. I have instead inserted numbers + within the text in the format [xx] and cross-referenced + these to the appropriate notes.--D.L. + + + + + +Edited, with introduction and notes by Ada L. F. Snell Associate +Professor Of English Mount Holyoke College + +Riverside College Classics Copyright 1909 + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +INTRODUCTION + +The Life of Huxley + +Subject-matter, Structure, and Style of Essays + +Suggested Studies + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION + +ON A PIECE OF CHALK + +THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION + +THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION + +ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE + +ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS + +NOTES + + + + +PREFACE + + +The purpose of the following selections is to present to students +of English a few of Huxley's representative essays. Some of these +selections are complete; others are extracts. In the latter case, +however, they are not extracts in the sense of being incomplete wholes, +for each selection given will be found to have, in Aristotle's +phrase, "a beginning, a middle, and an end." That they are complete in +themselves, although only parts of whole essays, is due to the fact that +Huxley, in order to make succeeding material clear, often prepares +the way with a long and careful definition. Such is the nature of the +extract A Liberal Education, in reality a definition to make distinct +and forcible his ideas on the shortcomings of English schools. Such a +definition, also, is The Method of Scientific Investigation. + +The footnotes are those of the author. Other notes on the text have been +included for the benefit of schools inadequately equipped with reference +books. It is hoped, however, that the notes may be found not to be so +numerous as to prevent the training of the student in a self-reliant and +scholarly use of dictionaries and reference books; it is hoped, also, +that they may serve to stimulate him to trace out for himself more +completely any subject connected with the text in which he may feel a +peculiar interest. It should be recognized that notes are of value only +as they develop power to read intelligently. If unintelligently relied +upon, they may even foster indifference and lazy mental habits. + +I wish to express my obligation to Miss Flora Bridges, whose careful +reading of the manuscript has been most helpful, and to Professor Clara +F. Stevens, the head of the English Department at Mount Holyoke College, +whose very practical aid made this volume possible. + +A. L. F. S. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + + + +I -- THE LIFE OF HUXLEY + + +Of Huxley's life and of the forces which moulded his thought, the +Autobiography gives some account; but many facts which are significant +are slighted, and necessarily the later events of his life are omitted. +To supplement the story as given by him is the purpose of this sketch. +The facts for this account are gathered entirely from the Life and +Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, by his son. For a real acquaintance +with Huxley, the student should consult this source for himself; he will +count the reading of the Life and Letters among the rare pleasures which +have come to him through books. + +Thomas Henry Huxley was born on May 4, 1825. His autobiography gives a +full account of his parents, his early boyhood, and his education. Of +formal education, Huxley had little; but he had the richer schooling +which nature and life give an eager mind. He read widely; he talked +often with older people; he was always investigating the why of things. +He kept a journal in which he noted thoughts gathered from books, and +ideas on the causes of certain phenomena. In this journal he frequently +wrote what he had done and had set himself to do in the way of +increasing his knowledge. Self-conducted, also, was his later education +at the Charing Cross Hospital. Here, like Stevenson in his university +days, Huxley seemed to be idle, but in reality, he was always busy on +his own private end. So constantly did he work over the microscope that +the window at which he sat came to be dubbed by his fellow students "The +Sign of the Head and Microscope." Moreover, in his regular courses at +Charing Cross, he seems to have done work sufficiently notable to be +recognized by several prizes and a gold medal. + +Of his life after the completion of his medical course, of his +search for work, of his appointment as assistant surgeon on board the +Rattlesnake, and of his scientific work during the four years' cruise, +Huxley gives a vivid description in the autobiography. As a result of +his investigations on this voyage, he published various essays which +quickly secured for him a position in the scientific world as a +naturalist of the first rank. A testimony of the value of this work was +his election to membership in the Royal Society. + +Although Huxley had now, at the age of twenty-six, won distinction +in science, he soon discovered that it was not so easy to earn bread +thereby. Nevertheless, to earn a living was most important if he were to +accomplish the two objects which he had in view. He wished, in the first +place, to marry Miss Henrietta Heathorn of Sydney, to whom he had become +engaged when on the cruise with the Rattlesnake; his second object +was to follow science as a profession. The struggle to find something +connected with science which would pay was long and bitter; and only a +resolute determination to win kept Huxley from abandoning it altogether. +Uniform ill-luck met him everywhere. He has told in his autobiography +of his troubles with the Admiralty in the endeavor to get his papers +published, and of his failure there. He applied for a position to teach +science in Toronto; being unsuccessful in this attempt, he applied +successively for various professorships in the United Kingdom, and in +this he was likewise unsuccessful. Some of his friends urged him to hold +out, but others thought the fight an unequal one, and advised him to +emigrate to Australia. He himself was tempted to practice medicine in +Sydney; but to give up his purpose seemed to him like cowardice. On the +other hand, to prolong the struggle indefinitely when he might quickly +earn a living in other ways seemed like selfishness and an injustice to +the woman to whom he had been for a long time engaged. Miss Heathorn, +however, upheld him in his determination to pursue science; and his +sister also, he writes, cheered him by her advice and encouragement to +persist in the struggle. Something of the man's heroic temper may be +gathered from a letter which he wrote to Miss Heathorn when his affairs +were darkest. "However painful our separation may be," he says, "the +spectacle of a man who had given up the cherished purpose of his life +. . . would, before long years were over our heads, be infinitely more +painful." He declares that he is hemmed in by all sorts of difficulties. +"Nevertheless the path has shown itself a fair one, neither more +difficult nor less so than most paths in life in which a man of energy +may hope to do much if he believes in himself, and is at peace within." +Thus relieved in mind, he makes his decision in spite of adverse fate. +"My course of life is taken, I will not leave London--I WILL make myself +a name and a position as well as an income by some kind of pursuit +connected with science which is the thing for which Nature has fitted me +if she has ever fitted any one for anything." + +But suddenly the long wait, the faith in self, were justified, and the +turning point came. "There is always a Cape Horn in one's life that +one either weathers or wrecks one's self on," he writes to his sister. +"Thank God, I think I may say I have weathered mine--not without a good +deal of damage to spars and rigging though, for it blew deuced hard on +the other side." In 1854 a permanent lectureship was offered him at the +Government School of Mines; also, a lectureship at St. Thomas' Hospital; +and he was asked to give various other lecture courses. He thus found +himself able to establish the home for which he had waited eight years. +In July, 1855, he was married to Miss Heathorn. + +The succeeding years from 1855 to 1860 were filled with various kinds +of work connected with science: original investigation, printing of +monographs, and establishing of natural history museums. His advice +concerning local museums is interesting and characteristically +expressed. "It [the local museum if properly arranged] will tell both +natives and strangers exactly what they want to know, and possess great +scientific interest and importance. Whereas the ordinary lumber-room +of clubs from New Zealand, Hindu idols, sharks' teeth, mangy monkeys, +scorpions, and conch shells--who shall describe the weary inutility of +it? It is really worse than nothing, because it leads the unwary to look +for objects of science elsewhere than under their noses. What they want +to know is that their 'America is here,' as Wilhelm Meister has it." +During this period, also, he began his lectures to workingmen, calling +them Peoples' Lectures. "POPULAR lectures," he said, "I hold to be an +abomination unto the Lord." Working-men attended these lectures in great +numbers, and to them Huxley seemed to be always able to speak at his +best. His purpose in giving these lectures should be expressed in his +own words: "I want the working class to understand that Science and her +ways are great facts for them--that physical virtue is the base of all +other, and that they are to be clean and temperate and all the rest--not +because fellows in black and white ties tell them so, but because there +are plain and patent laws which they must obey 'under penalties.'" + +Toward the close of 1859, Darwin's "Origin of Species" was published. It +raised a great outcry in England; and Huxley immediately came forward as +chief defender of the faith therein set forth. He took part in debates +on this subject, the most famous of which was the one between himself +and Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford. The Bishop concluded his speech +by turning to Huxley and asking, "Was it through his grandfather or +grandmother that he claimed descent from a monkey?" Huxley, as is +reported by an eye-witness, "slowly and deliberately arose. A slight +tall figure, stern and pale, very quiet and grave, he stood before us +and spoke those tremendous words. . . . He was not ashamed to have a +monkey for an ancestor; but he would be ashamed to be connected with a +man who used great gifts to obscure the truth." Another story indicates +the temper of that time. Carlyle, whose writing had strongly influenced +Huxley, and whom Huxley had come to know, could not forgive him for his +attitude toward evolution. One day, years after the publication of Man's +Place in Nature, Huxley, seeing Carlyle on the other side of the street, +a broken, pathetic figure, walked over and spoke to him. The old man +merely remarked, "You're Huxley, aren't you? the man that says we are +all descended from monkeys," and passed on. Huxley, however, saw nothing +degrading to man's dignity in the theory of evolution. In a wonderfully +fine sentence he gives his own estimate of the theory as it affects +man's future on earth. "Thoughtful men once escaped from the blinding +influences of traditional prejudices, will find in the lowly stock +whence man has sprung the best evidence of the splendour of his +capacities; and will discover, in his long progress through the past, a +reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a nobler future." As +a result of all these controversies on The Origin of Species and of +investigations to uphold Darwin's theory, Huxley wrote his first book, +already mentioned, Man's Place in Nature. + +To read a list of the various kinds of work which Huxley was doing +from 1870 to 1875 is to be convinced of his abundant energy and many +interests. At about this time Huxley executed the plan which he had had +in mind for a long time, the establishment of laboratories for the +use of students. His object was to furnish a more exact preliminary +training. He complains that the student who enters the medical school +is "so habituated to learn only from books, or oral teaching, that the +attempt to learn from things and to get his knowledge at first hand is +something new and strange." To make this method of teaching successful +in the schools, Huxley gave practical instruction in laboratory work to +school-masters. + +"If I am to be remembered at all," Huxley once wrote, "I would rather it +should be as a man who did his best to help the people than by any +other title." Certainly as much of his time as could be spared from his +regular work was given to help others. His lectures to workingmen and +school-masters have already been mentioned. In addition, he lectured to +women on physiology and to children on elementary science. In order +to be of greater service to the children, Huxley, in spite of delicate +health, became a member of the London School Board. His immediate object +was "to temper book-learning with something of the direct knowledge of +Nature." His other purposes were to secure a better physical training +for children and to give them a clearer understanding of social and +moral law. He did not believe, on the one hand, in overcrowding the +curriculum, but, on the other hand, he "felt that all education should +be thrown open to all that each man might know to what state in life he +was called." Another statement of his purpose and beliefs is given by +Professor Gladstone, who says of his work on the board: "He resented +the idea that schools were to train either congregations for churches or +hands for factories. He was on the Board as a friend of children. What +he sought to do for the child was for the child's sake, that it might +live a fuller, truer, worthier life." + +The immense amount of work which Huxley did in these years told very +seriously on his naturally weak constitution. It became necessary for +him finally for two successive years to stop work altogether. In 1872 +he went to the Mediterranean and to Egypt. This was a holiday full of +interest for a man like Huxley who looked upon the history of the world +and man's place in the world with a keen scientific mind. Added to this +scientific bent of mind, moreover, Huxley had a deep appreciation for +the picturesque in nature and life. Bits of description indicate +his enjoyment in this vacation. He writes of his entrance to the +Mediterranean, "It was a lovely morning, and nothing could be grander +than Ape Hill on one side and the Rock on the other, looking like great +lions or sphinxes on each side of a gateway." In Cairo, Huxley found +much to interest him in archaeology, geology, and the every-day life of +the streets. At the end of a month, he writes that he is very well and +very grateful to Old Nile for all that he has done for him, not the +least "for a whole universe of new thoughts and pictures of life." The +trip, however, did no lasting good. In 1873 Huxley was again very ill, +but was under such heavy costs at this time that another vacation was +impossible. At this moment, a critical one in his life, some of his +close scientific friends placed to his credit twenty-one hundred pounds +to enable him to take the much needed rest. Darwin wrote to Huxley +concerning the gift: "In doing this we are convinced that we act for the +public interest." He assured Huxley that the friends who gave this felt +toward him as a brother. "I am sure that you will return this feeling +and will therefore be glad to give us the opportunity of aiding you in +some degree, as this will be a happiness to us to the last day of +our lives." The gift made it possible for Huxley to take another long +vacation, part of which was spent with Sir Joseph Hooker, a noted +English botanist, visiting the volcanoes of Auvergne. After this trip +he steadily improved in health, with no other serious illness for ten +years. + +In 1876 Huxley was invited to visit America and to deliver the inaugural +address at Johns Hopkins University. In July of this year accordingly, +in company with his wife, he crossed to New York. Everywhere Huxley +was received with enthusiasm, for his name was a very familiar one. Two +quotations from his address at Johns Hopkins are especially worthy of +attention as a part of his message to Americans. "It has been my fate to +see great educational funds fossilise into mere bricks and mortar in the +petrifying springs of architecture, with nothing left to work them. +A great warrior is said to have made a desert and called it peace. +Trustees have sometimes made a palace and called it a university." + +The second quotation is as follows:-- + +I cannot say that I am in the slightest degree impressed by your bigness +or your material resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, territory +does not make a nation. The great issue, about which hangs true +sublimity, and the terror of overhanging fate, is, what are you going to +do with all these things? . . . + +The one condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral worth +and intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot +give these, but it can cherish them and bring them to the front in +whatever station of society they are to be found, and the universities +ought to be, and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the +nation. + + +After the return from America, the same innumerable occupations were +continued. It would be impossible in short space even to enumerate all +Huxley's various publications of the next ten years. His work, however, +changed gradually from scientific investigation to administrative +work, not the least important of which was the office of Inspector of +Fisheries. A second important office was the Presidency of the Royal +Society. Of the work of this society Sir Joseph Hooker writes: "The +duties of the office are manifold and heavy; they include attendance at +all the meetings of the Fellows, and of the councils, committees, and +sub-committees of the Society, and especially the supervision of the +printing and illustrating all papers on biological subjects that are +published in the Society's Transactions and Proceedings; the latter +often involving a protracted correspondence with the authors. To this +must be added a share in the supervision of the staff officers, of the +library and correspondence, and the details of house-keeping." All the +work connected with this and many other offices bespeaks a life too +hard-driven and accounts fully for the continued ill-health which +finally resulted in a complete break-down. + +Huxley had always advocated that the age of sixty was the time for +"official death," and had looked forward to a peaceful "Indian summer." +With this object in mind and troubled by increasing ill-health, he began +in 1885 to give up his work. But to live even in comparative idleness, +after so many years of activity, was difficult. "I am sure," he says, +"that the habit of incessant work into which we all drift is as bad +in its way as dram-drinking. In time you cannot be comfortable without +stimulus." But continued bodily weakness told upon him to the extent +that all work became distasteful. An utter weariness with frequent +spells of the blues took possession of him; and the story of his life +for some years is the story of the long pursuit of health in England, +Switzerland, and especially in Italy. + +Although Huxley was wretchedly ill during this period, he wrote letters +which are good to read for their humor and for their pictures of foreign +cities. Rome he writes of as an idle, afternoony sort of place from +which it is difficult to depart. He worked as eagerly over the historic +remains in Rome as he would over a collection of geological specimens. +"I begin to understand Old Rome pretty well and I am quite learned in +the Catacombs, which suit me, as a kind of Christian fossils out of +which one can reconstruct the body of the primitive Church." Florence, +for a man with a conscience and ill-health, had too many picture +galleries. "They are a sore burden to the conscience if you don't go +to see them, and an awful trial to the back and legs if you do," he +complained. He found Florence, nevertheless, a lovely place and full +of most interesting things to see and do. His letters with reference to +himself also are vigorously and entertainingly expressed. He writes in +a characteristic way of his growing difficulty with his hearing. "It +irritates me not to hear; it irritates me still more to be spoken to as +if I were deaf, and the absurdity of being irritated on the last ground +irritates me still more." And again he writes in a more hopeful strain, +"With fresh air and exercise and careful avoidance of cold and night air +I am to be all right again." He then adds: "I am not fond of coddling; +but as Paddy gave his pig the best corner in his cabin--because 'shure, +he paid the rint'--I feel bound to take care of myself as a household +animal of value, to say nothing of other points." + +Although he was never strong after this long illness, Huxley began +in 1889 to be much better. The first sign of returning vigor was the +eagerness with which he entered into a controversy with Gladstone. +Huxley had always enjoyed a mental battle; and some of his fiercest +tilts were with Gladstone. He even found the cause of better health in +this controversy, and was grateful to the "Grand Old Man" for making +home happy for him. From this time to his death, Huxley wrote a number +of articles on politics, science, and religion, many of which were +published in the volume called Controverted Questions. The main value of +these essays lies in the fact that Huxley calls upon men to give clear +reasons for the faith which they claim as theirs, and makes, as a friend +wrote of him, hazy thinking and slovenly, half-formed conclusions seem +the base thing they really are. + +The last years of Huxley's life were indeed the longed-for Indian +summer. Away from the noise of London at Eastbourne by the sea, he spent +many happy hours with old-time friends and in his garden, which was +a great joy to him. His large family of sons and daughters and +grandchildren brought much cheer to his last days. Almost to the end he +was working and writing for publication. Three days before his death +he wrote to his old friend, Hooker, that he didn't feel at all like +"sending in his checks" and hoped to recover. He died very quietly on +June 29, 1895. That he met death with the same calm faith and strength +with which he had met life is indicated by the lines which his wife +wrote and which he requested to be his epitaph:-- + +Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep; For still He giveth His +beloved sleep, And if an endless sleep He wills, so best. + + +To attempt an analysis of Huxley's character, unique and bafflingly +complex as it is, is beyond the scope of this sketch; but to give +only the mere facts of his life is to do an injustice to the vivid +personality of the man as it is revealed in his letters. All his human +interest in people and things--pets, and flowers, and family--brightens +many pages of the two ponderous volumes. Now one reads of his grief over +some backward-going plant, or over some garden tragedy, as "A lovely +clematis in full flower, which I had spent hours in nailing up, has just +died suddenly. I am more inconsolable than Jonah!" Now one is amused +with a nonsense letter to one of his children, and again with an +account of a pet. "I wish you would write seriously to M----. She is +not behaving well to Oliver. I have seen handsomer kittens, but few more +lively, and energetically destructive. Just now he scratched away at +something M---- says cost 13s. 6d. a yard and reduced more or less of it +to combings. M---- therefore excludes him from the dining-room and +all those opportunities of higher education which he would have in MY +house." Frequently one finds a description of some event, so vividly +done that the mere reading of it seems like a real experience. An +account of Tennyson's burial in Westminster is a typical bit of +description:-- + +Bright sunshine streamed through the windows of the nave, while the +choir was in half gloom, and as each shaft of light illuminated the +flower-covered bier as it slowly travelled on, one thought of the bright +succession of his works between the darkness before and the darkness +after. I am glad to say that the Royal Society was represented by four +of its chief officers, and nine of the commonalty, including myself. +Tennyson has a right to that, as the first poet since Lucretius who has +understood the drift of science. + + +No parts of the Life and Letters are more enjoyable than those +concerning the "Happy Family," as a friend of Huxley's names his +household. His family of seven children found their father a most +engaging friend and companion. He could tell them wonderful sea stories +and animal stories and could draw fascinating pictures. His son writes +of how when he was ill with scarlet fever he used to look forward to his +father's home-coming. "The solitary days--for I was the first victim in +the family--were very long, and I looked forward with intense interest +to one half-hour after dinner, when he would come up and draw scenes +from the history of a remarkable bull-terrier and his family that went +to the seaside in a most human and child-delighting manner. I have +seldom suffered a greater disappointment than when, one evening, I fell +asleep just before this fairy half-hour, and lost it out of my life." + +The account of the comradeship between Huxley and his wife reads like +a good old-time romance. He was attracted to her at first by +her "simplicity and directness united with an unusual degree of +cultivation," Huxley's son writes. On her he depended for advice in his +work, and for companionship at home and abroad when wandering in search +of health in Italy and Switzerland. When he had been separated from her +for some time, he wrote, "Nobody, children or anyone else, can be to me +what you are. Ulysses preferred his old woman to immortality, and +this absence has led me to see that he was as wise in that as in other +things." Again he writes, "Against all trouble (and I have had my share) +I weigh a wife-comrade 'trew and fest' in all emergencies." + +The letters also give one a clear idea of the breadth of Huxley's +interests, particularly of his appreciation of the various forms of art. +Huxley believed strongly in the arts as a refining and helpful influence +in education. He keenly enjoyed good music. Professor Hewes writes of +him that one breaking in upon him in the afternoon at South Kensington +would not infrequently be met "with a snatch of some melody of Bach's +fugue." He also liked good pictures, and always had among his friends +well-known artists, as Alma-Tadema, Sir Frederick Leighton, and +Burne-Jones. He read poetry widely, and strongly advocated the teaching +of poetry in English schools. As to poetry, his own preferences are +interesting. Wordsworth he considered too discursive; Shelley was too +diffuse; Keats, he liked for pure beauty, Browning for strength, and +Tennyson for his understanding of modern science; but most frequently of +all he read Milton and Shakespeare. + +As to Huxley's appearance, and as to the impression which his +personality made upon others, the description of a friend, Mr. G. W. +Smalley, presents him with striking force. "The square forehead, the +square jaw, the tense lines of the mouth, the deep flashing dark +eyes, the impression of something more than strength he gave you, an +impression of sincerity, of solid force, of immovability, yet with the +gentleness arising from the serene consciousness of his strength--all +this belonged to Huxley and to him alone. The first glance magnetized +his audience. The eyes were those of one accustomed to command, of one +having authority, and not fearing on occasion to use it. The hair swept +carelessly away from the broad forehead and grew rather long behind, +yet the length did not suggest, as it often does, effeminacy. He was +masculine in everything--look, gesture, speech. Sparing of gesture, +sparing of emphasis, careless of mere rhetorical or oratorical art, +he had nevertheless the secret of the highest art of all, whether in +oratory or whatever else--he had simplicity." + +Simplicity, directness, sincerity,--all these qualities describe Huxley; +but the one attribute which distinguishes him above all others is love +of truth. A love of truth, as the phrase characterizes Huxley, would +necessarily produce a scholarly habit of mind. It was the zealous search +for truth which determined his method of work. In science, Huxley would +"take at second hand nothing for which he vouched in teaching." Some one +reproached him for wasting time verifying what another had already done. +"If that is his practice," he commented, "his work will never live." The +same motive made him a master of languages. To be able to read at first +hand the writings of other nations, he learned German, French, Italian, +and Greek. One of the chief reasons for learning to read Greek was to +see for himself if Aristotle really did say that the heart had only +three chambers--an error, he discovered, not of Aristotle, but of the +translator. It was, moreover, the scholar in Huxley which made him +impatient of narrow, half-formed, foggy conclusions. His own work has +all the breadth and freedom and universality of the scholar, but it has, +also, a quality equally distinctive of the scholar, namely, an infinite +precision in the matter of detail. + +If love of truth made Huxley a scholar, it made him, also, a courageous +fighter. Man's first duty, as he saw it, was to seek the truth; +his second was to teach it to others, and, if necessary, to contend +valiantly for it. To fail to teach what you honestly know to be true, +because it may harm your reputation, or even because it may give pain to +others, is cowardice. "I am not greatly concerned about any reputation," +Huxley writes to his wife, "except that of being entirely honest and +straightforward." Regardless of warnings that the publication of Man's +Place in Nature would ruin his career, Huxley passed on to others what +nature had revealed to him. He was regardless, also, of the confusion +and pain which his view would necessarily bring to those who had been +nourished in old traditions. To stand with a man or two and to do battle +with the world on the score of its old beliefs, has never been an easy +task since the world began. Certainly it required fearlessness and +determination to wrestle with the prejudices against science in the +middle of the nineteenth century--how much may be gathered from the +reading of Darwin's Life and Letters. The attitude of the times toward +science has already been indicated. One may be allowed to give one more +example from the reported address of a clergyman. "O ye men of science, +ye men of science, leave us our ancestors in paradise, and you may have +yours in Zoological gardens." The war was, for the most part, between +the clergy and the men of science, but it is necessary to remember +that Huxley fought not against Christianity, but against dogma; that +he fought not against the past,--he had great reverence for the +accomplishment of the past,--but against unwillingness to accept the new +truth of the present. + +A scholar of the highest type and a fearless defender of true and honest +thinking, Huxley certainly was: but the quality which gives meaning to +his work, which makes it live, is a certain human quality due to the +fact that Huxley was always keenly alive to the relation of science to +the problems of life. For this reason, he was not content with the +mere acquirement of knowledge; and for this reason, also, he could not +quietly wait until the world should come to his way of thinking. Much +of the time, therefore, which he would otherwise naturally have spent +in research, he spent in contending for and in endeavoring to popularize +the facts of science. It was this desire to make his ideas prevail +that led Huxley to work for a mastery of the technique of speaking and +writing. He hated both, but taught himself to do both well. The end of +all his infinite pains about his writing was not because style for its +own sake is worth while, but because he saw that the only way to win +men to a consideration of his message was to make it perfectly clear and +attractive to them. Huxley's message to the people was that happiness, +usefulness, and even material prosperity depend upon an understanding +of the laws of nature. He also taught that a knowledge of the facts of +science is the soundest basis for moral law; that a clear sense of +the penalties which Nature inflicts for disobedience of her laws must +eventually be the greatest force for the purification of life. If he +was to be remembered, therefore, he desired that he should be remembered +primarily as one who had helped the people "to think truly and to live +rightly." Huxley's writing is, then, something more than a scholarly +exposition of abstruse matter; for it has been further devoted to the +increasing of man's capacity for usefulness, and to the betterment of +his life here on earth. + + + + +II -- SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + + +From the point of view of subject-matter, structure, and style, Huxley's +essays are admirably adapted to the uses of the student in English. +The themes of the essays are two, education and science. In these +two subjects Huxley earnestly sought to arouse interest and to impart +knowledge, because he believed that intelligence in these matters is +essential for the advancement of the race in strength and morality. Both +subjects, therefore, should be valuable to the student. In education, +certainly, he should be interested, since it is his main occupation, if +not his chief concern. Essays like A Liberal Education and The Principal +Subjects of Education may suggest to him the meaning of all his work, +and may suggest, also, the things which it would be well for him to +know; and, even more, a consideration of these subjects may arouse him +to a greater interest and responsibility than he usually assumes toward +his own mental equipment. Of greater interest probably will be the +subjects which deal with nature; for the ways of nature are more nearly +within the range of his real concerns than are the wherefores of study. +The story of the formation of a piece of chalk, the substance which lies +at the basis of all life, the habits of sea animals, are all subjects +the nature of which is akin to his own eager interest in the world. + +Undoubtedly the subjects about which Huxley writes will "appeal" to +the student; but it is in analysis that the real discipline lies. For +analysis Huxley's essays are excellent. They illustrate "the clear power +of exposition," and such power is, as Huxley wrote to Tyndall, the one +quality the people want,--exposition "so clear that they may think they +understand even if they don't." Huxley obtains that perfect clearness +in his own work by simple definition, by keeping steadily before his +audience his intention, and by making plain throughout his lecture a +well-defined organic structure. No X-ray machine is needful to make the +skeleton visible; it stands forth with the parts all nicely related +and compactly joined. In reference to structure, his son and biographer +writes, "He loved to visualize his object clearly. The framework of +what he wished to say would always be drawn out first." Professor Ray +Lankester also mentions Huxley's love of form. "He deals with form not +only as a mechanical engineer IN PARTIBUS (Huxley's own description of +himself), but also as an artist, a born lover of form, a character which +others recognize in him though he does not himself set it down in his +analysis." Huxley's own account of his efforts to shape his work is +suggestive. "The fact is that I have a great love and respect for my +native tongue, and take great pains to use it properly. Sometimes I +write essays half-a-dozen times before I can get them into proper shape; +and I believe I become more fastidious as I grow older." And, indeed, +there is a marked difference in firmness of structure between the +earlier essays, such as On the Educational Value of the Natural History +Sciences, written, as Huxley acknowledges, in great haste, and the +later essays, such as A Liberal Education and The Method of Scientific +Investigation. To trace and to define this difference will be most +helpful to the student who is building up a knowledge of structure for +his own use. + +According to Huxley's biographer in the Life and Letters of Thomas Henry +Huxley, the essays which represent him at his best are those published +in 1868. They are A Piece of Chalk, A Liberal Education, and On the +Physical Basis of Life. In connection with the comment on these essays +is the following quotation which gives one interesting information as to +Huxley's method of obtaining a clear style:-- + +This lecture on A Piece of Chalk together with two others delivered this +year, seems to me to mark the maturing of his style into that mastery of +clear expression for which he deliberately labored, the saying exactly +what he meant, neither too much nor too little, without confusion and +without obscurity. Have something to say, and say it, was the Duke of +Wellington's theory of style; Huxley's was to say that which has to be +said in such language that you can stand cross-examination on each +word. Be clear, though you may be convicted of error. If you are clearly +wrong, you will run up against a fact sometime and get set right. If you +shuffle with your subject, and study chiefly to use language which will +give a loophole of escape either way, there is no hope for you. + +This was the secret of his lucidity. In no one could Buffon's aphorism +on style find a better illustration, Le style c'est l'homme meme. In +him science and literature, too often divorced, were closely united; and +literature owes him a debt for importing into it so much of the highest +scientific habit of mind; for showing that truthfulness need not be +bald, and that real power lies more in exact accuracy than in luxuriance +of diction. + + +Huxley's own theory as to how clearness is to be obtained gets at the +root of the matter. "For my part, I venture to doubt the wisdom of +attempting to mould one's style by any other process than that +of striving after the clear and forcible expression of definite +conceptions; in which process the Glassian precept, first catch your +definite conception, is probably the most difficult to obey." + +Perfect clearness, above every other quality of style, certainly +is characteristic of Huxley; but clearness alone does not make +subject-matter literature. In addition to this quality, Huxley's writing +wins the reader by the racy diction, the homely illustration, the +plain, honest phrasing. All these and other qualities bring one into +an intimate relationship with his subject. A man of vast technical +learning, he is still so interested in the relation of his facts to the +problems of men that he is always able to infuse life into the driest +of subjects, in other words, to HUMANIZE his knowledge; and in the +estimation of Matthew Arnold, this is the true work of the scholar, the +highest mission of style. + + + + +III -- SUGGESTED STUDIES IN SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + + +Although fully realizing that the questions here given are only such as +are generally used everywhere by instructors in English, the editor has, +nevertheless, included them with the hope that some one may find them +helpful. + +The studies given include a few general questions and suggestions on +subject-matter, structure, and style. The questions on structure are +based on an analysis of the whole composition and of the paragraph; +those on style are based on a study of sentences and words. Such +a division of material may seem unwarranted; for, it may be urged, +firmness of structure depends, to a certain extent, upon sentence-form +and words; and clearness of style, to a large extent, upon the form of +the paragraph and whole composition. The two, certainly, cannot be in +justice separated; and especially is it true, more deeply true than the +average student can be brought to believe, that structure, "MIND, in +style" as Pater phrases it, primarily determines not only clearness, but +also such qualities of style as reserve, refinement, and simple Doric +beauty. Since, however, structure is more obviously associated with +the larger groups, and style with the smaller, the questions have been +arranged according to this division. + + +I. Suggestions for the Study of Subject-Matter. + + +1. To whom does Huxley address the essay? + +2. Can you see any adaptation of his material to his audience? + +3. How would A Piece of Chalk be differently presented if given before a +science club? + +4. Does Huxley make his subject interesting? If so, how does he +accomplish this? + +5. Is the personality of Huxley suggested by the essays? See Life and +Letters, vol. ii, p. 293. + + +II. Suggestions for the Study of Structure. + + +A. Analysis of the whole composition. + +1. State in one complete sentence the theme of the essay. + +2. Analyze the essay for the logical development of the thought. + +a. Questions on the Introduction. + +In the introduction, how does the author approach his material? + +Does he give the main points of the essay? + +Does he give his reasons for writing? + +Does he narrow his subject to one point of view? + +Is the introduction a digression? + +b. Questions on the Body. + +Can you find large groups of thought? + +Are these groups closely related to the theme and to each other? + +Do you find any digressions? + +Is the method used in developing the groups inductive or deductive? + +Is the method different in different groups? + +Are the groups arranged for good emphasis in the whole composition? + +c. Questions on the Conclusion. + +How does the author conclude the essay? + +Does the conclusion sum up the points of the essay? + +Are any new points suggested? + +Is the thought of the whole essay stated? + +Do you consider it a strong conclusion? + +3. Make out an outline which shall picture the skeleton of the essay +studied. In making the outline express the topics in the form of +complete statements, phrase the thought for clear sequence, and be +careful about such matters as spacing and punctuation. + +B. Analysis of paragraph structure. + +1. Can a paragraph be analyzed in the same manner as the whole +composition? + +2. Can you express the thought of each paragraph in a complete sentence? + +3. Can you find different points presented in the paragraph developing +the paragraph topic, as the large groups of the whole composition +develop the theme? + +4. Are the paragraphs closely related, and how are they bound together? + +5. Can any of the paragraphs be combined to advantage? + +6. Read from Barrett Wendell's English Composition the chapter on +paragraphs. Are Huxley's paragraphs constructed in accordance with the +principles given in this chapter? + +7. Is the paragraph type varied? For paragraph types, see Scott and +Denny's Paragraph Writing. + +C. Comparative study of the structure of the essay. + +1. Do you find any difference between Huxley's earlier and later +essays as regards the structure of the whole, or the structure of the +paragraph? + +2. Which essay seems to you to be most successful in structure? + +3. Has the character of the audience any influence upon the structure of +the essays? + +4. Compare the structure of one of Huxley's essays with that of some +other essay recently studied. + +5. Has the nature of the material any influence upon the structure of +the essay? + + +III. Suggestions for the Study of Style. + + +A. Exactly what do you mean by style? + +B. Questions on sentence structure. + +1. From any given essay, group together sentences which are long, short, +loose, periodic, balanced, simple, compound; note those peculiar, for +any reason, to Huxley. + +2. Stevenson says, "The one rule is to be infinitely various; to +interest, to disappoint, to surprise and still to gratify; to be ever +changing, as it were, the stitch, and yet still to give the effect of +ingenious neatness." + +Do Huxley's sentences conform to Stevenson's rule? Compare Huxley's +sentences with Stevenson's for variety in form. Is there any reason for +the difference between the form of the two writers? + +3. Does this quotation from Pater's essay on Style describe Huxley's +sentences? "The blithe, crisp sentence, decisive as a child's expression +of its needs, may alternate with the long-contending, victoriously +intricate sentence; the sentence, born with the integrity of a single +word, relieving the sort of sentence in which, if you look closely, you +can see contrivance, much adjustment, to bring a highly qualified matter +into compass at one view." + +4. How do Huxley's sentences compare with those of Ruskin, or with those +of any author recently studied? + +5. Are Huxley's sentences musical? How does an author make his sentences +musical? + +C. Questions on words. + +1. Do you find evidence of exactness, a quality which Huxley said he +labored for? + +2. Are the words general or specific in character? + +3. How does Huxley make his subject-matter attractive? + +4. From what sources does Huxley derive his words? Are they every-day +words, or more scholarly in character? + +5. Do you find any figures? Are these mainly ornamental or do they +re-enforce the thought? + +8. Are there many allusions and quotations? Can you easily recognize the +source? + +7. Pater says in his essay on Style that the literary artist "begets +a vocabulary faithful to the colouring of his own spirit, and in the +strictest sense original." Do you find that Huxley's vocabulary suggests +the man? + +8. Does Huxley seem to search for "the smooth, or winsome, or forcible +word, as such, or quite simply and honestly, for the word's adjustment +to its meaning"? + +9. Make out a list of the words and proper names in any given essay +which are not familiar to you; write out the explanation of these in the +form of notes giving any information which is interesting and relevant. + +D. General questions on style. + +1. How is Huxley's style adapted to the subject-matter? + +2. Can you explain the difference in style of the different essays by +the difference in purpose? + +3. Compare Huxley's way of saying things with some other author's way of +saying things. + +4. Huxley says of his essays to workingmen, "I only wish I had had the +sense to anticipate the run these have had here and abroad, and I would +have revised them properly. As they stand they are terribly in the +rough, from a literary point of view." + +Do you find evidences of roughness? + + + + +THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY -- AUTOBIOGRAPHY [1] + + +And when I consider, in one view, the many things . . . which I have +upon my hands, I feel the burlesque of being employed in this manner at +my time of life. But, in another view, and taking in all circumstances, +these things, as trifling as they may appear, no less than things of +greater importance, seem to be put upon me to do.--Bishop Butler to the +Duchess of Somerset. + + +The "many things" to which the Duchess's correspondent here refers are +the repairs and improvements of the episcopal seat at Auckland. I doubt +if the great apologist, greater in nothing than in the simple dignity of +his character, would have considered the writing an account of himself +as a thing which could be put upon him to do whatever circumstances +might be taken in. But the good bishop lived in an age when a man +might write books and yet be permitted to keep his private existence +to himself; in the pre-Boswellian [2] epoch, when the germ of the +photographer lay concealed in the distant future, and the interviewer +who pervades our age was an unforeseen, indeed unimaginable, birth of +time. + +At present, the most convinced believer in the aphorism "Bene qui +latuit, bene vixit,"[3] is not always able to act up to it. An +importunate person informs him that his portrait is about to be +published and will be accompanied by a biography which the importunate +person proposes to write. The sufferer knows what that means; either he +undertakes to revise the "biography" or he does not. In the former case, +he makes himself responsible; in the latter, he allows the publication +of a mass of more or less fulsome inaccuracies for which he will be +held responsible by those who are familiar with the prevalent art of +self-advertisement. On the whole, it may be better to get over the +"burlesque of being employed in this manner" and do the thing himself. + +It was by reflections of this kind that, some years ago, I was led to +write and permit the publication of the subjoined sketch. + + +I was born about eight o'clock in the morning on the 4th of May, 1825, +at Ealing, which was, at that time, as quiet a little country village as +could be found within a half-a-dozen miles of Hyde Park Corner. Now it +is a suburb of London with, I believe, 30,000 inhabitants. My father was +one of the masters in a large semi-public school which at one time had a +high reputation. I am not aware that any portents preceded my arrival +in this world, but, in my childhood, I remember hearing a traditional +account of the manner in which I lost the chance of an endowment of +great practical value. The windows of my mother's room were open, in +consequence of the unusual warmth of the weather. For the same reason, +probably, a neighbouring beehive had swarmed, and the new colony, +pitching on the window-sill, was making its way into the room when the +horrified nurse shut down the sash. If that well-meaning woman had only +abstained from her ill-timed interference, the swarm might have settled +on my lips, and I should have been endowed with that mellifluous +eloquence which, in this country, leads far more surely than worth, +capacity, or honest work, to the highest places in Church and State. +But the opportunity was lost, and I have been obliged to content myself +through life with saying what I mean in the plainest of plain language, +than which, I suppose, there is no habit more ruinous to a man's +prospects of advancement. + +Why I was christened Thomas Henry I do not know; but it is a curious +chance that my parents should have fixed for my usual denomination upon +the name of that particular Apostle with whom I have always felt +most sympathy. Physically and mentally I am the son of my mother so +completely--even down to peculiar movements of the hands, which made +their appearance in me as I reached the age she had when I noticed +them--that I can hardly find any trace of my father in myself, except an +inborn faculty for drawing, which unfortunately, in my case, has never +been cultivated, a hot temper, and that amount of tenacity of purpose +which unfriendly observers sometimes call obstinacy. + +My mother was a slender brunette, of an emotional and energetic +temperament, and possessed of the most piercing black eyes I ever saw +in a woman's head. With no more education than other women of the middle +classes in her day, she had an excellent mental capacity. Her most +distinguishing characteristic, however, was rapidity of thought. If +one ventured to suggest she had not taken much time to arrive at any +conclusion, she would say, "I cannot help it, things flash across me." +That peculiarity has been passed on to me in full strength; it has often +stood me in good stead; it has sometimes played me sad tricks, and it +has always been a danger. But, after all, if my time were to come +over again, there is nothing I would less willingly part with than my +inheritance of mother wit. + +I have next to nothing to say about my childhood. In later years my +mother, looking at me almost reproachfully, would sometimes say, "Ah! +you were such a pretty boy!" whence I had no difficulty in concluding +that I had not fulfilled my early promise in the matter of looks. In +fact, I have a distinct recollection of certain curls of which I was +vain, and of a conviction that I closely resembled that handsome, +courtly gentleman, Sir Herbert Oakley, who was vicar of our parish, and +who was as a god to us country folk, because he was occasionally visited +by the then Prince George of Cambridge. [4] I remember turning my +pinafore wrong side forwards in order to represent a surplice, and +preaching to my mother's maids in the kitchen as nearly as possible in +Sir Herbert's manner one Sunday morning when the rest of the family were +at church. That is the earliest indication I can call to mind of the +strong clerical affinities which my friend Mr. Herbert Spencer [5] +has always ascribed to me, though I fancy they have for the most part +remained in a latent state. + +My regular school training was of the briefest, perhaps fortunately, +for though my way of life has made me acquainted with all sorts and +conditions of men, from the highest to the lowest, I deliberately affirm +that the society I fell into at school was the worst I have ever known. +We boys were average lads, with much the same inherent capacity for good +and evil as any others; but the people who were set over us cared +about as much for our intellectual and moral welfare as if they +were baby-farmers. We were left to the operation of the struggle +for existence among ourselves, and bullying was the least of the ill +practices current among us. Almost the only cheerful reminiscence in +connection with the place which arises in my mind is that of a battle I +had with one of my classmates, who had bullied me until I could stand it +no longer. I was a very slight lad, but there was a wild-cat element +in me which, when roused, made up for lack of weight, and I licked +my adversary effectually. However, one of my first experiences of the +extremely rough-and-ready nature of justice, as exhibited by the course +of things in general, arose out of the fact that I--the victor--had +a black eye, while he--the vanquished--had none, so that I got into +disgrace and he did not. We made it up, and thereafter I was unmolested. +One of the greatest shocks I ever received in my life was to be told +a dozen years afterwards by the groom who brought me my horse in a +stable-yard in Sydney that he was my quondam antagonist. He had a long +story of family misfortune to account for his position, but at that time +it was necessary to deal very cautiously with mysterious strangers in +New South Wales, and on inquiry I found that the unfortunate young man +had not only been "sent out," but had undergone more than one colonial +conviction. + +As I grew older, my great desire was to be a mechanical engineer, but +the fates were against this and, while very young, I commenced the study +of medicine under a medical brother-in-law. But, though the Institute +of Mechanical Engineers would certainly not own me, I am not sure that +I have not all along been a sort of mechanical engineer in partibus +infidelium.[6] I am now occasionally horrified to think how very little +I ever knew or cared about medicine as the art of healing. The only +part of my professional course which really and deeply interested me was +physiology, which is the mechanical engineering of living machines; and, +notwithstanding that natural science has been my proper business, I am +afraid there is very little of the genuine naturalist in me. I never +collected anything, and species work was always a burden to me; what I +cared for was the architectural and engineering part of the business, +the working out of the wonderful unity of plan in the thousands and +thousands of diverse living constructions, and the modifications of +similar apparatuses to serve diverse ends. The extraordinary attraction +I felt towards the study of the intricacies of living structure nearly +proved fatal to me at the outset. I was a mere boy--I think between +thirteen and fourteen years of age--when I was taken by some older +student friends of mine to the first post-mortem examination I ever +attended. All my life I have been most unfortunately sensitive to the +disagreeables which attend anatomical pursuits, but on this occasion my +curiosity overpowered all other feelings, and I spent two or three +hours in gratifying it. I did not cut myself, and none of the ordinary +symptoms of dissection-poison supervened, but poisoned I was somehow, +and I remember sinking into a strange state of apathy. By way of a last +chance, I was sent to the care of some good, kind people, friends of +my father's, who lived in a farmhouse in the heart of Warwickshire. +I remember staggering from my bed to the window on the bright spring +morning after my arrival, and throwing open the casement. Life seemed to +come back on the wings of the breeze, and to this day the faint odor of +wood-smoke, like that which floated across the farm-yard in the early +morning, is as good to me as the "sweet south upon a bed of violets."[7] +I soon recovered, but for years I suffered from occasional paroxysms of +internal pain, and from that time my constant friend, hypochondriacal +dyspepsia, commenced his half century of co-tenancy of my fleshly +tabernacle. + +Looking back on my "Lehrjahre,"[8] I am sorry to say that I do not think +that any account of my doings as a student would tend to edification. +In fact, I should distinctly warn ingenuous youth to avoid imitating +my example. I worked extremely hard when it pleased me, and when it did +not--which was a very frequent case--I was extremely idle (unless making +caricatures of one's pastors and masters is to be called a branch +of industry), or else wasted my energies in wrong directions. I read +everything I could lay hands upon, including novels, and took up all +sorts of pursuits to drop them again quite as speedily. No doubt it was +very largely my own fault, but the only instruction from which I ever +obtained the proper effect of education was that which I received from +Mr. Wharton Jones, who was the lecturer on physiology at the Charing +Cross School of Medicine. The extent and precision of his knowledge +impressed me greatly, and the severe exactness of his method of +lecturing was quite to my taste. I do not know that I have ever felt so +much respect for anybody as a teacher before or since. I worked hard +to obtain his approbation, and he was extremely kind and helpful to the +youngster who, I am afraid, took up more of his time than he had +any right to do. It was he who suggested the publication of my first +scientific paper--a very little one--in the Medical Gazette of 1845, and +most kindly corrected the literary faults which abounded in it, short as +it was; for at that time, and for many years afterwards, I detested the +trouble of writing, and would take no pains over it. + +It was in the early spring of 1846, that, having finished my obligatory +medical studies and passed the first M. D. examination at the London +University,--though I was still too young to qualify at the College +of Surgeons,--I was talking to a fellow-student (the present eminent +physician, Sir Joseph Fayrer), and wondering what I should do to meet +the imperative necessity for earning my own bread, when my friend +suggested that I should write to Sir William Burnett, at that +time Director-General for the Medical Service of the Navy, for an +appointment. I thought this rather a strong thing to do, as Sir William +was personally unknown to me, but my cheery friend would not listen to +my scruples, so I went to my lodgings and wrote the best letter I could +devise. A few days afterwards I received the usual official circular +acknowledgment, but at the bottom there was written an instruction +to call at Somerset House on such a day. I thought that looked like +business, so at the appointed time I called and sent in my card, while +I waited in Sir William's ante-room. He was a tall, shrewd-looking old +gentleman, with a broad Scotch accent--and I think I see him now as he +entered with my card in his hand. The first thing he did was to return +it, with the frugal reminder that I should probably find it useful on +some other occasion. The second was to ask whether I was an Irishman. +I suppose the air of modesty about my appeal must have struck him. I +satisfied the Director-General that I was English to the backbone, and +he made some inquiries as to my student career, finally desiring me +to hold myself ready for examination. Having passed this, I was in Her +Majesty's Service, and entered on the books of Nelson's [9] old ship, +the Victory, for duty at Haslar Hospital, about a couple of months after +I made my application. + +My official chief at Haslar was a very remarkable person, the late +Sir John Richardson, an excellent naturalist, and far-famed as an +indomitable Arctic traveller. He was a silent, reserved man, outside the +circle of his family and intimates; and, having a full share of youthful +vanity, I was extremely disgusted to find that "Old John," as we +irreverent youngsters called him, took not the slightest notice of my +worshipful self either the first time I attended him, as it was my duty +to do, or for some weeks afterwards. I am afraid to think of the lengths +to which my tongue may have run on the subject of the churlishness +of the chief, who was, in truth, one of the kindest-hearted and most +considerate of men. But one day, as I was crossing the hospital square, +Sir John stopped me, and heaped coals of fire on my head by telling +me that he had tried to get me one of the resident appointments, much +coveted by the assistant surgeons, but that the Admiralty had put in +another man. "However," said he, "I mean to keep you here till I can get +you something you will like," and turned upon his heel without waiting +for the thanks I stammered out. That explained how it was I had not been +packed off to the West Coast of Africa like some of my juniors, and why, +eventually, I remained altogether seven months at Haslar. + +After a long interval, during which "Old John" ignored my existence +almost as completely as before, he stopped me again as we met in a +casual way, and describing the service on which the Rattlesnake was +likely to be employed, said that Captain Owen Stanley, who was to +command the ship, had asked him to recommend an assistant surgeon who +knew something of science; would I like that? Of course I jumped at +the offer. "Very well, I give you leave; go to London at once and see +Captain Stanley." I went, saw my future commander, who was very civil +to me, and promised to ask that I should be appointed to his ship, as in +due time I was. It is a singular thing that, during the few months of my +stay at Haslar, I had among my messmates two future Directors-General +of the Medical Service of the Navy (Sir Alexander Armstrong and Sir John +Watt-Reid), with the present President of the College of Physicians and +my kindest of doctors, Sir Andrew Clark. + +Life on board Her Majesty's ship in those days was a very different +affair from what it is now, and ours was exceptionally rough, as we +were often many months without receiving letters or seeing any civilised +people but ourselves. In exchange, we had the interest of being about +the last voyagers, I suppose, to whom it could be possible to meet with +people who knew nothing of fire-arms--as we did on the south coast of +New Guinea--and of making acquaintance with a variety of interesting +savage and semi-civilised people. But, apart from experience of +this kind and the opportunities offered for scientific work, to me, +personally, the cruise was extremely valuable. It was good for me to +live under sharp discipline; to be down on the realities of existence by +living on bare necessaries; to find out how extremely well worth living +life seemed to be when one woke up from a night's rest on a soft plank, +with the sky for canopy and cocoa and weevilly biscuit the sole prospect +for breakfast; and, more especially, to learn to work for the sake of +what I got for myself out of it, even if it all went to the bottom and I +along with it. My brother officers were as good fellows as sailors ought +to be and generally are, but, naturally, they neither knew nor cared +anything about my pursuits, nor understood why I should be so zealous +in pursuit of the objects which my friends, the middies,[10] christened +"Buffons," after the title conspicuous on a volume of the Suites a +Buffon,[11] which stood on my shelf in the chart room. + +During the four years of our absence, I sent home communication after +communication to the "Linnean Society,"[12] with the same result as that +obtained by Noah when he sent the raven out of his ark. Tired at last +of hearing nothing about them, I determined to do or die, and in 1849 +I drew up a more elaborate paper and forwarded it to the Royal +Society.[13] This was my dove, if I had only known it. But owing to the +movements of the ship, I heard nothing of that either until my return +to England in the latter end of the year 1850, when I found that it was +printed and published, and that a huge packet of separate copies awaited +me. When I hear some of my young friends complain of want of sympathy +and encouragement, I am inclined to think that my naval life was not the +least valuable part of my education. + +Three years after my return were occupied by a battle between my +scientific friends on the one hand and the Admiralty on the other, as +to whether the latter ought, or ought not, to act up to the spirit of a +pledge they had given to encourage officers who had done scientific +work by contributing to the expense of publishing mine. At last the +Admiralty, getting tired, I suppose, cut short the discussion by +ordering me to join a ship, which thing I declined to do, and as +Rastignac,[14] in the Pere Goriot [15] says to Paris, I said to London +"a nous deux." I desired to obtain a Professorship of either Physiology +or Comparative Anatomy, and as vacancies occurred I applied, but in +vain. My friend, Professor Tyndall,[16] and I were candidates at the +same time, he for the Chair of Physics and I for that of Natural History +in the University of Toronto, which, fortunately, as it turned out, +would not look at either of us. I say fortunately, not from any lack of +respect for Toronto, but because I soon made up my mind that London was +the place for me, and hence I have steadily declined the inducements to +leave it, which have at various times been offered. At last, in 1854, on +the translation of my warm friend Edward Forbes, to Edinburgh, Sir Henry +de la Beche, the Director-General of the Geological Survey, offered +me the post Forbes vacated of Paleontologist and Lecturer on Natural +History. I refused the former point blank, and accepted the latter only +provisionally, telling Sir Henry that I did not care for fossils, +and that I should give up Natural History as soon as I could get a +physiological post. But I held the office for thirty-one years, and a +large part of my work has been paleontological. + +At that time I disliked public speaking, and had a firm conviction that +I should break down every time I opened my mouth. I believe I had every +fault a speaker could have (except talking at random or indulging +in rhetoric), when I spoke to the first important audience I ever +addressed, on a Friday evening at the Royal Institution, in 1852. Yet, +I must confess to having been guilty, malgre moi, of as much public +speaking as most of my contemporaries, and for the last ten years it +ceased to be so much of a bugbear to me. I used to pity myself for +having to go through this training, but I am now more disposed to +compassionate the unfortunate audiences, especially my ever friendly +hearers at the Royal Institution, who were the subjects of my oratorical +experiments. + +The last thing that it would be proper for me to do would be to speak of +the work of my life, or to say at the end of the day whether I think +I have earned my wages or not. Men are said to be partial judges +of themselves. Young men may be, I doubt if old men are. Life seems +terribly foreshortened as they look back and the mountain they set +themselves to climb in youth turns out to be a mere spur of immeasurably +higher ranges when, by failing breath, they reach the top. But if I may +speak of the objects I have had more or less definitely in view since I +began the ascent of my hillock, they are briefly these: To promote +the increase of natural knowledge and to forward the application of +scientific methods of investigation to all the problems of life to the +best of my ability, in the conviction which has grown with my growth +and strengthened with my strength, that there is no alleviation for the +sufferings of mankind except veracity of thought and of action, and the +resolute facing of the world as it is when the garment of make-believe +by which pious hands have hidden its uglier features is stripped off. + +It is with this intent that I have subordinated any reasonable, or +unreasonable, ambition for scientific fame which I may have permitted +myself to entertain to other ends; to the popularization of science; to +the development and organisation of scientific education; to the +endless series of battles and skirmishes over evolution; and to untiring +opposition to that ecclesiastical spirit,[17] that clericalism, which in +England, as everywhere else, and to whatever denomination it may belong, +is the deadly enemy of science. + +In striving for the attainment of these objects, I have been but one +among many, and I shall be well content to be remembered, or even not +remembered, as such. Circumstances, among which I am proud to reckon the +devoted kindness of many friends, have led to my occupation of various +prominent positions, among which the Presidency of the Royal Society is +the highest. It would be mock modesty on my part, with these and other +scientific honours which have been bestowed upon me, to pretend that I +have not succeeded in the career which I have followed, rather because +I was driven into it than of my own free will; but I am afraid I should +not count even these things as marks of success if I could not hope that +I had somewhat helped that movement of opinion which has been called the +New Reformation.[18] + + + + +ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE [19] + + +This time two hundred years ago--in the beginning of January, +1666--those of our forefathers who inhabited this great and ancient +city, took breath between the shocks of two fearful calamities: one not +quite past, although its fury had abated; the other to come. + +Within a few yards of the very spot [20] on which we are assembled, so +the tradition runs, that painful and deadly malady, the plague, appeared +in the latter months of 1664; and, though no new visitor, smote the +people of England, and especially of her capital, with a violence +unknown before, in the course of the following year. The hand of a +master has pictured what happened in those dismal months; and in that +truest of fictions, The History of the Plague Year, Defoe [21] shows +death, with every accompaniment of pain and terror, stalking through the +narrow streets of old London, and changing their busy hum into a silence +broken only by the wailing of the mourners of fifty thousand dead; by +the woeful denunciations and mad prayers of fanatics; and by the madder +yells of despairing profligates. + +But, about this time in 1666, the death-rate had sunk to nearly its +ordinary amount; a case of plague occurred only here and there, and +the richer citizens who had flown from the pest had returned to their +dwellings. The remnant of the people began to toil at the accustomed +round of duty, or of pleasure; and the stream of city life bid fair to +flow back along its old bed, with renewed and uninterrupted vigour. + +The newly kindled hope was deceitful. The great plague, indeed, returned +no more; but what it had done for the Londoners, the great fire, which +broke out in the autumn of 1666, did for London; and, in September of +that year, a heap of ashes and the indestructible energy of the people +were all that remained of the glory of five-sixths of the city within +the walls. + + +Our forefathers had their own ways of accounting for each of these +calamities. They submitted to the plague in humility and in penitence, +for they believed it to be the judgment of God. But, towards the fire +they were furiously indignant, interpreting it as the effect of the +malice of man,--as the work of the Republicans, or of the Papists, +according as their prepossessions ran in favour of loyalty or of +Puritanism. + +It would, I fancy, have fared but ill with one who, standing where I +now stand, in what was then a thickly peopled and fashionable part of +London, should have broached to our ancestors the doctrine which I now +propound to you--that all their hypotheses were alike wrong; that the +plague was no more, in their sense, Divine judgment, than the fire was +the work of any political, or of any religious sect; but that they were +themselves the authors of both plague and fire, and that they must look +to themselves to prevent the recurrence of calamities, to all appearance +so peculiarly beyond the reach of human control--so evidently the result +of the wrath of God, or of the craft and subtlety of an enemy. + +And one may picture to one's self how harmoniously the holy cursing of +the Puritan of that day would have chimed in with the unholy cursing +and the crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys,[22] and with the +revilings of the political fanatics, if my imaginary plain dealer +had gone on to say that, if the return of such misfortunes were ever +rendered impossible, it would not be in virtue of the victory of the +faith of Laud,[23] or of that of Milton; and, as little, by the triumph +of republicanism, as by that of monarchy. But that the one thing needful +for compassing this end was, that the people of England should second +the efforts of an insignificant corporation, the establishment of which, +a few years before the epoch of the great plague and the great fire, had +been as little noticed, as they were conspicuous. + + +Some twenty years before the outbreak of the plague a few calm and +thoughtful students banded themselves together for the purpose, as they +phrased it, of "improving natural knowledge." The ends they proposed +to attain cannot be stated more clearly than in the words of one of the +founders of the organisation:-- + +"Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to +discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, and such as related +thereunto:--as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, +Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments; +with the state of these studies and their cultivation at home and +abroad. We then discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves +in the veins, the venae lacteae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican +hypothesis, the nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of +Jupiter, the oval shape (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots +on the sun and its turning on its own axis, the inequalities and +selenography [24] of the moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, +the improvement of telescopes and grinding of glasses for that purpose, +the weight of air, the possibility or impossibility of vacuities +and nature's abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment [25] in +quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of acceleration +therein, with divers other things of like nature, some of which were +then but new discoveries, and others not so generally known and embraced +as now they are; with other things appertaining to what hath been called +the New Philosophy, which from the times of Galileo at Florence, and Sir +Francis Bacon [26] (Lord Verulam) in England, hath been much cultivated +in Italy, France, Germany, and other parts abroad, as well as with us in +England." + +The learned Dr. Wallis,[27] writing in 1696, narrates in these words, +what happened half a century before, or about 1645. The associates met +at Oxford, in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to become a +bishop; and subsequently coming together in London, they attracted +the notice of the king. And it is a strange evidence of the taste for +knowledge which the most obviously worthless of the Stuarts shared with +his father and grandfather, that Charles the Second was not content with +saying witty things about his philosophers, but did wise things with +regard to them. For he not only bestowed upon them such attention as he +could spare from his poodles and his mistresses, but, being in his usual +state of impecuniosity, begged for them of the Duke of Ormond; and, that +step being without effect, gave them Chelsea College, a charter, and +a mace: crowning his favours in the best way they could be crowned, by +burdening them no further with royal patronage or state interference. + +Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, studious of the "New +Philosophy," [28] who met in one another's lodgings in Oxford or in +London, in the middle of the seventeenth century, grew in numerical and +in real strength, until, in its latter part, the "Royal Society for the +Improvement of Natural Knowledge" had already become famous, and had +acquired a claim upon the veneration of Englishmen, which it has ever +since retained, as the principal focus of scientific activity in our +islands, and the chief champion of the cause it was formed to support. + +It was by the aid of the Royal Society [29] that Newton [30] published +his Principia. If all the books in the world, except the Philosophical +Transactions, [31] were destroyed, it is safe to say that the +foundations of physical science would remain unshaken, and that the vast +intellectual progress of the last two centuries would be largely, though +incompletely, recorded. Nor have any signs of halting or of decrepitude +manifested themselves in our own times. As in Dr. Wallis's days, so +in these, "our business is, precluding theology and state affairs, +to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries." But our +"Mathematick" is one which Newton would have to go to school to +learn; our "Staticks, Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural +Experiments" constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, a +glimpse at which would compensate Galileo [32] for the doings of a score +of inquisitorial cardinals; our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced +such infinite varieties of beings, have laid open such new worlds in +time and space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex +problems, that the eyes of Vesalius [33] and of Harvey [34] might be +dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of their grain of +mustard seed. + +The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, forced upon one's +notice, nowadays, that all this marvellous intellectual growth has a no +less wonderful expression in practical life; and that, in this respect, +if in no other, the movement symbolised by the progress of the Royal +Society stands without a parallel in the history of mankind. + +A series of volumes as bulky as the "Transactions of the Royal Society" +might possibly be filled with the subtle speculations [35] of the +Schoolmen;[36] not improbably, the obtaining a mastery over the products +of mediaeval thought might necessitate an even greater expenditure of +time and of energy than the acquirement of the "New Philosophy"; but +though such work engrossed the best intellects of Europe for a longer +time than has elapsed since the great fire, its effects were "writ in +water,"[37] so far as our social state is concerned. + +On the other hand, if the noble first President of the Royal Society +could revisit the upper air and once more gladden his eyes with a sight +of the familiar mace, he would find himself in the midst of a material +civilisation more different from that of his day, than that of the +seventeenth was from that of the first century. And if Lord Brouncker's +[38] native sagacity had not deserted his ghost, he would need no long +reflection to discover that all these great ships, these railways, these +telegraphs, these factories, these printing-presses, without which the +whole fabric of modern English society would collapse into a mass of +stagnant and starving pauperism,--that all these pillars of our State +are but the ripples and the bubbles upon the surface of that great +spiritual stream, the springs of which only, he and his fellows were +privileged to see; and seeing, to recognise as that which it behoved +them above all things to keep pure and undefiled. + +It may not be too great a flight of imagination to conceive our noble +revenant [39] not forgetful of the great troubles of his own day, and +anxious to know how often London had been burned down since his time +and how often the plague had carried off its thousands. He would have to +learn that, although London contains tenfold the inflammable matter that +it did in 1666; though, not content with filling our rooms with woodwork +and light draperies, we must needs lead inflammable and explosive gases +into every corner of our streets and houses, we never allow even a +street to burn down. And if he asked how this had come about, we should +have to explain that the improvement of natural knowledge has furnished +us with dozens of machines for throwing water upon fires, any one of +which would have furnished the ingenious Mr. Hooke, the first "curator +and experimenter" of the Royal Society, with ample materials for +discourse before half a dozen meetings of that body; and that, to say +truth, except for the progress of natural knowledge, we should not +have been able to make even the tools by which these machines are +constructed. And, further, it would be necessary to add, that although +severe fires sometimes occur and inflict great damage, the loss is very +generally compensated by societies, the operations of which have been +rendered possible only by the progress of natural knowledge in the +direction of mathematics, and the accumulation of wealth in virtue of +other natural knowledge. + +But the plague? My Lord Brouncker's observation would not, I fear, lead +him to think that Englishmen of the nineteenth century are purer in +life, or more fervent in religious faith, than the generation which +could produce a Boyle,[40] an Evelyn,[41] and a Milton. He might find +the mud of society at the bottom, instead of at the top, but I fear that +the sum total would be as deserving of swift judgment as at the time of +the Restoration.[42] And it would be our duty to explain once more, and +this time not without shame, that we have no reason to believe that it +is the improvement of our faith, nor that of our morals, which keeps +the plague from our city; but, again, that it is the improvement of our +natural knowledge. + +We have learned that pestilences will only take up their abode among +those who have prepared unswept and ungarnished residences for them. +Their cities must have narrow, unwatered streets, foul with accumulated +garbage. Their houses must be ill-drained, ill-lighted, ill-ventilated. +Their subjects must be ill-washed, ill-fed, ill-clothed. The London +of 1665 was such a city. The cities of the East, where plague has an +enduring dwelling, are such cities. We, in later times, have learned +somewhat of Nature, and partly obey her. Because of this partial +improvement of our natural knowledge and of that fractional obedience, +we have no plague; because that knowledge is still very imperfect and +that obedience yet incomplete, typhoid is our companion and cholera our +visitor. But it is not presumptuous to express the belief that, when +our knowledge is more complete and our obedience the expression of our +knowledge, London will count her centuries of freedom from typhoid +and cholera, as she now gratefully reckons her two hundred years of +ignorance of that plague which swooped upon her thrice in the first half +of the seventeenth century. + +Surely, there is nothing in these explanations which is not fully +borne out by the facts? Surely, the principles involved in them are now +admitted among the fixed beliefs of all thinking men? Surely, it is true +that our countrymen are less subject to fire, famine, pestilence, +and all the evils which result from a want of command over and due +anticipation of the course of Nature, than were the countrymen of +Milton; and health, wealth, and well-being are more abundant with us +than with them? But no less certainly is the difference due to the +improvement of our knowledge of Nature, and the extent to which that +improved knowledge has been incorporated with the household words of +men, and has supplied the springs of their daily actions. + +Granting for a moment, then, the truth of that which the depreciators of +natural knowledge are so fond of urging, that its improvement can only +add to the resources of our material civilisation; admitting it to be +possible that the founders of the Royal Society themselves looked +for not other reward than this, I cannot confess that I was guilty +of exaggeration when I hinted, that to him who had the gift of +distinguishing between prominent events and important events, the origin +of a combined effort on the part of mankind to improve natural knowledge +might have loomed larger than the Plague and have outshone the glare +of the Fire; as a something fraught with a wealth of beneficence to +mankind, in comparison with which the damage done by those ghastly evils +would shrink into insignificance. + +It is very certain that for every victim slain by the plague, hundreds +of mankind exist and find a fair share of happiness in the world by the +aid of the spinning jenny. And the great fire, at its worst, could +not have burned the supply of coal, the daily working of which, in the +bowels of the earth, made possible by the steam pump, gives rise to an +amount of wealth to which the millions lost in old London are but as an +old song. + + +But spinning jenny and steam pump are, after all, but toys, possessing +an accidental value; and natural knowledge creates multitudes of more +subtle contrivances, the praises of which do not happen to be sung +because they are not directly convertible into instruments for creating +wealth. When I contemplate natural knowledge squandering such gifts +among men, the only appropriate comparison I can find for her is to +liken her to such a peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever +upward, heavily burdened, and with mind bent only on her home; but +yet without effort and without thought, knitting for her children. +Now stockings are good and comfortable things, and the children +will undoubtedly be much the better for them; but surely it would be +short-sighted, to say the least of it, to depreciate this toiling mother +as a mere stocking-machine--a mere provider of physical comforts? + +However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a few of them, +who take this view of natural knowledge, and can see nothing in the +bountiful mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding machine. +According to them, the improvement of natural knowledge always has been, +and always must be, synonymous with no more than the improvement of the +material resources and the increase of the gratifications of men. + +Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of mankind, bringing +them up with kindness, and, if need be, with sternness, in the way they +should go, and instructing them in all things needful for their welfare; +but a sort of fairy god-mother, ready to furnish her pets with shoes of +swiftness, swords of sharpness, and omnipotent Aladdin's lamps,[43] so +that they may have telegraphs to Saturn, and see the other side of the +moon, and thank God they are better than their benighted ancestors. + +If this talk were true, I, for one, should not greatly care to toil +in the service of natural knowledge. I think I would just as soon be +quietly chipping my own flint axe, after the manner of my forefathers +a few thousand years back, as be troubled with the endless malady of +thought which now infests us all, for such reward. But I venture to +say that such views are contrary alike to reason and to fact. Those who +discourse in such fashion seem to me to be so intent upon trying to see +what is above Nature, or what is behind her, that they are blind to what +stares them in the face in her. + +I should not venture thus to speak strongly if my justification were not +to be found in the simplest and most obvious facts,--if it needed more +than an appeal to the most notorious truths to justify my assertion, +that the improvement of natural knowledge, whatever direction it has +taken, and however low the aims of those who may have commenced it--has +not only conferred practical benefits on men, but, in so doing, has +effected a revolution in their conceptions of the universe and of +themselves, and has profoundly altered their modes of thinking and +their views of right and wrong. I say that natural knowledge, seeking +to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still +spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to +ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of +conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality. + + +Let us take these points separately; and first, what great ideas has +natural knowledge introduced into men's minds? + +I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural knowledge were +laid when the reason of man first came face to face with the facts of +Nature; when the savage first learned that the fingers of one hand are +fewer than those of both; that it is shorter to cross a stream than to +head it; that a stone stops where it is unless it be moved, and that it +drops from the hand which lets it go; that light and heat come and go +with the sun; that sticks burn away in a fire; that plants and animals +grow and die; that if he struck his fellow savage a blow he would make +him angry, and perhaps get a blow in return, while if he offered him a +fruit he would please him, and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. When +men had acquired this much knowledge, the outlines, rude though they +were, of mathematics, of physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, +economical, and political science, were sketched. Nor did the germ of +religion fail when science began to bud. Listen to words which, though +new, are yet three thousand years old:-- + +. . . When in heaven the stars about the moon Look beautiful, when all +the winds are laid, And every height comes out, and jutting peak And +valley, and the immeasurable heavens Break open to their highest, and +all the stars Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart.[44] + + +If the half savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, it is +irrational to doubt that he went further, to find as we do, that upon +that brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow,--the little light of +awakened human intelligence shines so mere a spark amidst the abyss +of the unknown and unknowable; seems so insufficient to do more than +illuminate the imperfections that cannot be remedied, the aspirations +that cannot be realised, of man's own nature. But in this sadness, this +consciousness of the limitation of man, this sense of an open secret +which he cannot penetrate, lies the essence of all religion; and the +attempt to embody it in the forms furnished by the intellect is the +origin of the higher theologies. + +Thus it seems impossible to imagine but that the foundations of all +knowledge--secular or sacred--were laid when intelligence dawned, though +the superstructure remained for long ages so slight and feeble as to be +compatible with the existence of almost any general view respecting the +mode of governance of the universe. No doubt, from the first, there were +certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind, presented a constancy of +occurrence, and suggested that a fixed order ruled, at any rate, among +them. I doubt if the grossest of Fetish worshippers ever imagined that +a stone must have a god within it to make it fall, or that a fruit had +a god within it to make it taste sweet. With regard to such matters +as these, it is hardly questionable that mankind from the first took +strictly positive and scientific views. + +But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which present +themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always taken himself as the +standard of comparison, as the centre and measure of the world; nor +could be well avoid doing so. And finding that his apparently uncaused +will has a powerful effect in giving rise to many occurrences, he +naturally enough ascribed other and greater events to other and greater +volitions and came to look upon the world and all that therein is, as +the product of the volitions of persons like himself, but stronger, and +capable of being appeased or angered, as he himself might be soothed +or irritated. Through such conceptions of the plan and working of +the universe all mankind have passed, or are passing. And we may +now consider what has been the effect of the improvement of natural +knowledge on the views of men who have reached this stage, and who +have begun to cultivate natural knowledge with no desire but that of +"increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate."[45] + +For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material point of view, +more innocent, from a theological one, to an ancient people, than that +they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as warnings for +their husbandmen; or the position of the stars, as guides to their +rude navigators?[46] But what has grown out of this search for natural +knowledge of so merely useful a character? You all know the reply. +Astronomy,--which of all sciences has filled men's minds with general +ideas of a character most foreign to their daily experience, and has, +more than any other, rendered it impossible for them to accept the +beliefs of their fathers. Astronomy,--which tells them that this so vast +and seemingly solid earth is but an atom among atoms, whirling, no man +knows whither, through illimitable space; which demonstrates that what +we call the peaceful heaven above us, is but that space, filled by an +infinitely subtle matter whose particles are seething and surging, like +the waves of an angry sea; which opens up to us infinite regions where +nothing is known, or ever seems to have been known, but matter and +force, operating according to rigid rules; which leads us to contemplate +phaenomena the very nature of which demonstrates that they must have +had a beginning, and that they must have an end, but the very nature of +which also proves that the beginning was, to our conceptions of time, +infinitely remote, and that the end is as immeasurably distant. + +But it is not alone those who pursue astronomy who ask for bread +and receive ideas. What more harmless than the attempt to lift and +distribute water by pumping it; what more absolutely and grossly +utilitarian? Yet out of pumps grew the discussions about Nature's +abhorrence of a vacuum; and then it was discovered that Nature does not +abhor a vacuum, but that air has weight; and that notion paved the way +for the doctrine that all matter has weight, and that the force which +produces weight is co-extensive with the universe,--in short, to the +theory of universal gravitation and endless force. While learning how +to handle gases led to the discovery of oxygen, and to modern chemistry, +and to the notion of the indestructibility of matter. + +Again, what simpler, or more absolutely practical, than the attempt to +keep the axle of a wheel from heating when the wheel turns round very +fast? How useful for carters and gig drivers to know something about +this; and how good were it, if any ingenious person would find out the +cause of such phaenomena, and thence educe a general remedy for +them. Such an ingenious person was Count Rumford;[47] and he and +his successors have landed us in the theory of the persistence, or +indestructibility, of force. And in the infinitely minute, as in the +infinitely great, the seekers after natural knowledge of the kinds +called physical and chemical, have everywhere found a definite order and +succession of events which seem never to be infringed. + +And how has it fared with "Physick" and Anatomy? Have the anatomist, +the physiologist, or the physician, whose business it has been to devote +themselves assiduously to that eminently practical and direct end, +the alleviation of the sufferings of mankind,--have they been able to +confine their vision more absolutely to the strictly useful? I fear they +are the worst offenders of all. For if the astronomer has set before +us the infinite magnitude of space, and the practical eternity of the +duration of the universe; if the physical and chemical philosophers have +demonstrated the infinite minuteness of its constituent parts, and +the practical eternity of matter and of force; and if both have alike +proclaimed the universality of a definite and predicable order and +succession of events, the workers in biology have not only accepted all +these, but have added more startling theses of their own. For, as the +astronomers discover in the earth no centre of the universe, but an +eccentric [48] speck, so the naturalists find man to be no centre of the +living world, but one amidst endless modifications of life; and as the +astronomers observe the mark of practically endless time set upon +the arrangements of the solar system so the student of life finds the +records of ancient forms of existence peopling the world for ages, +which, in relation to human experience, are infinite. + +Furthermore, the physiologist finds life to be as dependent for its +manifestation of particular molecular arrangements as any physical or +chemical phenomenon; and wherever he extends his researches, fixed order +and unchanging causation reveal themselves, as plainly as in the rest of +Nature. + +Nor can I find that any other fate has awaited the germ of Religion. +Arising, like all other kinds of knowledge, out of the action and +interaction of man's mind, with that which is not man's mind, it has +taken the intellectual coverings of Fetishism or Polytheism; of Theism +or Atheism; of Superstition or Rationalism. With these, and their +relative merits and demerits, I have nothing to do; but this it is +needful for my purpose to say, that if the religion of the present +differs from that of the past, it is because the theology of the present +has become more scientific than that of the past; because it has not +only renounced idols of wood and idols of stone, but begins to see +the necessity of breaking in pieces the idols built up of books and +traditions and fine-spun ecclesiastical cobwebs: and of cherishing the +noblest and most human of man's emotions, by worship "for the most part +of the silent sort" at the Altar of the Unknown. + +Such are a few of the new conceptions implanted in our minds by the +improvement of natural knowledge. Men have acquired the ideas of +the practically infinite extent of the universe and of its practical +eternity; they are familiar with the conception that our earth is but an +infinitesimal fragment of that part of the universe which can be seen; +and that, nevertheless, its duration is, as compared with our standards +of time, infinite. They have further acquired the idea that man is but +one of innumerable forms of life now existing on the globe, and that +the present existences are but the last of an immeasurable series of +predecessors. Moreover, every step they have made in natural knowledge +has tended to extend and rivet in their minds the conception of a +definite order of the universe--which is embodied in what are called, +by an unhappy metaphor, the laws of Nature--and to narrow the range and +loosen the force of men's belief in spontaneity, or in changes other +than such as arise out of that definite order itself. + +Whether these ideas are well or ill founded is not the question. No one +can deny that they exist, and have been the inevitable outgrowth of the +improvement of natural knowledge. And if so, it cannot be doubted that +they are changing the form of men's most cherished and most important +convictions. + + +And as regards the second point--the extent to which the improvement +of natural knowledge has remodelled and altered what may be termed the +intellectual ethics of men,--what are among the moral convictions most +fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people? + +They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of +belief; that merit attaches to a readiness to believe; that the doubting +disposition is a bad one, and scepticism a sin; that when good authority +has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted it, reason +has no further duty. There are many excellent persons who yet hold by +these principles, and it is not my present business, or intention, to +discuss their views. All I wish to bring clearly before your minds is +the unquestionable fact, that the improvement of natural knowledge +is effected by methods which directly give the lie to all these +convictions, and assume the exact reverse of each to be true. + +The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge +authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind +faith the one unpardonable sin. And it cannot be otherwise, for every +great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection +of authority, the cherishing of the keenest scepticism, the annihilation +of the spirit of blind faith; and the most ardent votary of science +holds his firmest convictions, not because the men he most venerates +hold them; not because their verity is testified by portents and +wonders; but because his experience teaches him that whenever he chooses +to bring these convictions into contact with their primary source, +Nature--whenever he thinks fit to test them by appealing to experiment +and to observation--Nature will confirm them. The man of science has +learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification. + +Thus, without for a moment pretending to despise the practical results +of the improvement of natural knowledge, and its beneficial influence +on material civilisation, it must, I think, be admitted that the great +ideas, some of which I have indicated, and the ethical spirit which +I have endeavoured to sketch, in the few moments which remained at my +disposal, constitute the real and permanent significance of natural +knowledge. + +If these ideas be destined, as I believe they are, to be more and more +firmly established as the world grows older; if that spirit be fated, as +I believe it is, to extend itself into all departments of human thought, +and to become co-extensive with the range of knowledge; if, as our race +approaches its maturity, it discovers, as I believe it will, that there +is but one kind of knowledge and but one method of acquiring it; then +we, who are still children, may justly feel it our highest duty to +recognise the advisableness of improving natural knowledge, and so to +aid ourselves and our successors in our course towards the noble goal +which lies before mankind. + + + + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION [49] + + +The business which the South London Working Men's College has undertaken +is a great work; indeed, I might say, that Education, with which that +college proposes to grapple, is the greatest work of all those which lie +ready to a man's hand just at present. + +And, at length, this fact is becoming generally recognised. You +cannot go anywhere without hearing a buzz of more or less confused and +contradictory talk on this subject--nor can you fail to notice that, +in one point at any rate, there is a very decided advance upon like +discussions in former days. Nobody outside the agricultural interest now +dares to say that education is a bad thing. If any representative of the +once large and powerful party, which, in former days, proclaimed this +opinion, still exists in the semi-fossil state, he keeps his thoughts +to himself. In fact, there is a chorus of voices, almost distressing in +their harmony, raised in favour of the doctrine that education is +the great panacea for human troubles, and that, if the country is not +shortly to go to the dogs, everybody must be educated. + +The politicians tell us, "You must educate the masses because they are +going to be masters." The clergy join in the cry for education, for they +affirm that the people are drifting away from church and chapel into +the broadest infidelity. The manufacturers and the capitalists swell +the chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance makes bad workmen; that +England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods, or steam engines, +cheaper than other people; and then, Ichabod! Ichabod![50] the glory +will be departed from us. And a few voices are lifted up in favour of +the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they are men and +women with unlimited capacities of being, doing, and suffering, and that +it is as true now, as it ever was, that the people perish for lack of +knowledge. + +These members of the minority, with whom I confess I have a good deal of +sympathy, are doubtful whether any of the other reasons urged in favour +of the education of the people are of much value--whether, indeed, some +of them are based upon either wise or noble grounds of action. They +question if it be wise to tell people that you will do for them, out +of fear of their power, what you have left undone, so long as your only +motive was compassion for their weakness and their sorrows. And, if +ignorance of everything which is needful a ruler should know is likely +to do so much harm in the governing classes of the future, why is it, +they ask reasonably enough, that such ignorance in the governing classes +of the past has not been viewed with equal horror? + +Compare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it may +be doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in point of +ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that the ignorance is +of a different sort--that the class feeling is in favour of a different +class and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of wrong-headedness +in each case--but it is questionable if the one is either a bit better, +or a bit worse, than the other. The old protectionist theory is the +doctrine of trades unions as applied by the squires, and the modern +trades unionism is the doctrine of the squires applied by the artisans. +Why should we be worse off under one regime than under the other? + +Again, this sceptical minority asks the clergy to think whether it +is really want of education which keeps the masses away from their +ministrations--whether the most completely educated men are not as open +to reproach on this score as the workmen; and whether, perchance, this +may not indicate that it is not education which lies at the bottom of +the matter? + +Once more, these people, whom there is no pleasing, venture to doubt +whether the glory which rests upon being able to undersell all the rest +of the world, is a very safe kind of glory--whether we may not purchase +it too dear; especially if we allow education, which ought to be +directed to the making of men, to be diverted into a process of +manufacturing human tools, wonderfully adroit in the exercise of some +technical industry, but good for nothing else. + +And, finally, these people inquire whether it is the masses alone who +need a reformed and improved education. They ask whether the richest of +our public schools might not well be made to supply knowledge, as well +as gentlemanly habits, a strong class feeling, and eminent proficiency +in cricket. They seem to think that the noble foundations of our old +universities are hardly fulfilling their functions in their present +posture of half-clerical seminaries, half racecourses, where men are +trained to win a senior wranglership,[51] or a double-first,[52] as +horses are trained to win a cup, with as little reference to the needs +of after-life in the case of a man as in that of the racer. And, while +as zealous for education as the rest, they affirm that, if the education +of the richer classes were such as to fit them to be the leaders and +the governors of the poorer; and, if the education of the poorer classes +were such as to enable them to appreciate really wise guidance and good +governance, the politicians need not fear mob-law, nor the clergy lament +their want of flocks, nor the capitalists prognosticate the annihilation +of the prosperity of the country. + +Such is the diversity of opinion upon the why and the wherefore of +education. And my hearers will be prepared to expect that the practical +recommendations which are put forward are not less discordant. There is +a loud cry for compulsory education. We English, in spite of constant +experience to the contrary, preserve a touching faith in the efficacy of +acts of Parliament; and I believe we should have compulsory education +in the courses of next session, if there were the least probability that +half a dozen leading statesmen of different parties would agree what +that education should be. + +Some hold that education without theology is worse than none. Others +maintain, quite as strongly, that education with theology is in the same +predicament. But this is certain, that those who hold the first opinion +can by no means agree what theology should be taught; and that those who +maintain the second are in a small minority. + +At any rate "make people learn to read, write, and cipher," say a great +many; and the advice is undoubtedly sensible as far as it goes. But, +as has happened to me in former days, those who, in despair of getting +anything better, advocate this measure, are met with the objection that +it is very like making a child practise the use of a knife, fork, and +spoon, without giving it particle of meat. I really don't know what +reply is to be made to such an objection. + +But it would be unprofitable to spend more time in disentangling, +or rather in showing up the knots in, the ravelled skeins of our +neighbours. Much more to the purpose is it to ask if we possess any clue +of our own which may guide us among these entanglements. And by way of +a beginning, let us ask ourselves--What is education? Above all things, +what is our ideal of a thoroughly liberal education?--of that education +which, if we could begin life again, we would give ourselves--of that +education which, if we could mould the fates to our own will, we would +give our children? Well, I know not what may be your conceptions upon +this matter, but I will tell you mine, and I hope I shall find that our +views are not very discrepant. + + +Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one +of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a game +of chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary +duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; to have +a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of giving and +getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look with a +disapprobation amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed his son, +or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a +pawn from a knight? + +Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the fortune, +and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who +are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules +of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is +a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us +being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chessboard +is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules +of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other +side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, +and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a +mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who +plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing +generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who +plays ill is checkmated--without haste, but without remorse. + +My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which +Retzsch [53] has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. +Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel +who is playing for love, as we say, and would rather lose than win--and +I should accept it as an image of human life. + +Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty +game. In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in +the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things +and their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the +affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in +harmony with those laws. For me, education means neither more nor less +than this. Anything which professes to call itself education must be +tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the test, I will +not call it education, whatever may be the force of authority, or of +numbers, upon the other side. + +It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is no such thing +as an uneducated man. Take an extreme case. Suppose that an adult man, +in the full vigour of his faculties, could be suddenly placed in the +world, as Adam is said to have been, and then left to do as he best +might. How long would he be left uneducated? Not five minutes. Nature +would begin to teach him, through the eye, the ear, the touch, the +properties of objects. Pain and pleasure would be at his elbow telling +him to do this and avoid that; and by slow degrees the man would receive +an education which, if narrow, would be thorough, real, and adequate +to his circumstances, though there would be no extras and very few +accomplishments. + +And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam or, better still, an +Eve, a new and greater world, that of social and moral phenomena, would +be revealed. Joys and woes, compared with which all others might seem +but faint shadows, would spring from the new relations. Happiness and +sorrow would take the place of the coarser monitors, pleasure and pain; +but conduct would still be shaped by the observation of the natural +consequences of actions; or, in other words, by the laws of the nature +of man. + +To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. And +then, long before we were susceptible of any other modes of instruction, +Nature took us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its +educational influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with +Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross +disobedience. Nor should I speak of this process of education as past +for any one, be he as old as he may. For every man the world is as fresh +as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who +has the eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her patient +education of us in that great university, the universe, of which we are +all members--Nature having no Test-Acts.[54] + +Those who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws which +govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and successful +men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the "Poll,"[55] who +pick up just enough to get through without much discredit. Those who +won't learn at all are plucked;[56] and then you can't come up again. +Nature's pluck means extermination. + +Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as Nature +is concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and passed long +ago. But, like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and +wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful +disobedience--incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. +Nature's discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; +but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your +ears are boxed. + +The object of what we commonly call education--that education in which +man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial education--is +to make good these defects in Nature's methods; to prepare the child to +receive Nature's education, neither incapably nor ignorantly, nor with +wilful disobedience; and to understand the preliminary symptoms of +her pleasure, without waiting for the box on the ear. In short, all +artificial education ought to be an anticipation of natural education. +And a liberal education is an artificial education which has not only +prepared a man to escape the great evils of disobedience to natural +laws, but has trained him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards, +which Nature scatters with as free a hand as her penalties. + +That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained +in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with +ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; +whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of +equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, +to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as +forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge +of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her +operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, +but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the +servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, +whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others +as himself. + +Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for +he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will +make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely; +she as his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious +self, her minister and interpreter. + + + + +ON A PIECE OF CHALK [57] + + +If a well were sunk at our feet in the midst of the city of Norwich, the +diggers would very soon find themselves at work in that white substance +almost too soft to be called rock, with which we are all familiar as +"chalk." + +Not only here, but over the whole county of Norfolk, the well-sinker +might carry his shaft down many hundred feet without coming to the end +of the chalk; and, on the sea-coast, where the waves have pared away +the face of the land which breasts them, the scarped faces of the high +cliffs are often wholly formed of the same material. Northward, the +chalk may be followed as far as Yorkshire; on the south coast it appears +abruptly in the picturesque western bays of Dorset, and breaks into +the Needles of the Isle of Wight;[58] while on the shores of Kent it +supplies that long line of white cliffs to which England owes her name +of Albion. + +Were the thin soil which covers it all washed away, a curved band +of white chalk, here broader, and there narrower, might be followed +diagonally across England from Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough Head +[59] in Yorkshire--a distance of over two hundred and eighty miles as +the crow flies. + +From this band to the North Sea, on the east, and the Channel, on the +South, the chalk is largely hidden by other deposits; but, except in the +Weald [60] of Kent and Sussex, it enters into the very foundation of all +the south-eastern counties. + +Attaining, as it does in some places, a thickness of more than a +thousand feet, the English chalk must be admitted to be a mass of +considerable magnitude. Nevertheless, it covers but an insignificant +portion of the whole area occupied by the chalk formation of the globe, +which has precisely the same general characters as ours, and is found +in detached patches, some less, and others more extensive, than the +English. + +Chalk occurs in north-west Ireland; it stretches over a large part of +France,--the chalk which underlies Paris being, in fact, a continuation +of that of the London basin; it runs through Denmark and Central Europe, +and extends southward to North Africa; while eastward, it appears in the +Crimea and in Syria, and may be traced as far as the shores of the Sea +of Aral, in Central Asia. + +If all the points at which true chalk occurs were circumscribed, they +would lie within an irregular oval about three thousand miles in long +diameter--the area of which would be as great as that of Europe, and +would many times exceed that of the largest existing inland sea--the +Mediterranean. + +Thus the chalk is no unimportant element in the masonry of the earth's +crust, and it impresses a peculiar stamp, varying with the conditions to +which it is exposed, on the scenery of the districts in which it occurs. +The undulating downs and rounded coombs, covered with sweet-grassed +turf, of our inland chalk country, have a peacefully domestic and +mutton-suggesting prettiness, but can hardly be called either grand +or beautiful. But on our southern coasts, the wall-sided cliffs, many +hundred feet high, with vast needles and pinnacles standing out in +the sea, sharp and solitary enough to serve as perches for the wary +cormorant confer a wonderful beauty and grandeur upon the chalk +headlands. And, in the East, chalk has its share in the formation of +some of the most venerable of mountain ranges, such as the Lebanon. + + +What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and +whence did it come? + +You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not unnaturally +suppose that the attempt to solve such problems as these can lead to +no result, save that of entangling the inquirer in vague speculations, +incapable of refutation and of verification. + +If such were really the case, I should have selected some other subject +than a "piece of chalk" for my discourse. But, in truth, after much +deliberation, I have been unable to think of any topic which would so +well enable me to lead you to see how solid is the foundation upon which +some of the most startling conclusions of physical science rest. + +A great chapter of the history of the world is written in the chalk. Few +passages in the history of man can be supported by such an overwhelming +mass of direct and indirect evidence as that which testifies to the +truth of the fragment of the history of the globe, which I hope to +enable you to read, with your own eyes, tonight. + +Let me add, that few chapters of human history have a more profound +significance for ourselves. I weigh my words well when I assert, that +the man who should know the true history of the bit of chalk which every +carpenter carries about in his breeches-pocket, though ignorant of all +other history, is likely, if he will think his knowledge out to its +ultimate results, to have a truer, and therefore a better, conception +of this wonderful universe, and of man's relation to it, than the most +learned student who is deep-read in the records of humanity and ignorant +of those of Nature. + +The language of the chalk is not hard to learn, not nearly so hard as +Latin, if you only want to get at the broad features of the story it has +to tell; and I propose that we now set to work to spell that story out +together. + +We all know that if we "burn" chalk the result is quicklime. Chalk, in +fact, is a compound of carbonic acid gas, and lime, and when you make it +very hot the carbonic acid flies away and the lime is left. + +By this method of procedure we see the lime, but we do not see the +carbonic acid. If, on the other hand, you were to powder a little chalk +and drop it into a good deal of strong vinegar, there would be a great +bubbling and fizzing, and, finally, a clear liquid, in which no sign of +chalk would appear. Here you see the carbonic acid in the bubbles; the +lime, dissolved in the vinegar, vanishes from sight. There are a +great many other ways of showing that chalk is essentially nothing but +carbonic acid and quicklime. Chemists enunciate the result of all the +experiments which prove this, by stating that chalk is almost wholly +composed of "carbonate of lime." + +It is desirable for us to start from the knowledge of this fact, though +it may not seem to help us very far towards what we seek. For carbonate +of lime is a widely spread substance, and is met with under very various +conditions. All sorts of limestones are composed of more or less pure +carbonate of lime. The crust which is often deposited by waters which +have drained through limestone rocks, in the form of what are called +stalagmites and stalactites, is carbonate of lime. Or, to take a more +familiar example, the fur on the inside of a tea-kettle is carbonate of +lime; and, for anything chemistry tells us to the contrary, the chalk +might be a kind of gigantic fur upon the bottom of the earth-kettle, +which is kept pretty hot below. + +Let us try another method of making the chalk tell us its own history. +To the unassisted eye chalk looks simply like a very loose and open kind +of stone. But it is possible to grind a slice of chalk down so thin that +you can see through it--until it is thin enough, in fact, to be examined +with any magnifying power that may be thought desirable. A thin slice of +the fur of a kettle might be made in the same way. If it were examined +microscopically, it would show itself to be a more or less distinctly +laminated mineral substance and nothing more. + +But the slice of chalk presents a totally different appearance when +placed under the microscope. The general mass of it is made up of very +minute granules; but, imbedded in this matrix, are innumerable bodies, +some smaller and some larger, but, on a rough average, not more than +a hundredth of an inch in diameter, having a well-defined shape and +structure. A cubic inch of some specimens of chalk may contain hundreds +of thousands of these bodies, compacted together with incalculable +millions of the granules. + +The examination of a transparent slice gives a good notion of the manner +in which the components of the chalk are arranged, and of their relative +proportions. But, by rubbing up some chalk with a brush in water and +then pouring off the milky fluid, so as to obtain sediments of different +degrees of fineness, the granules and the minute rounded bodies may be +pretty well separated from one another, and submitted to microscopic +examination, either as opaque or as transparent objects. By combining +the views obtained in these various methods, each of the rounded bodies +may be proved to be a beautifully constructed calcareous fabric, made +up of a number of chambers, communicating freely with one another. The +chambered bodies are of various forms. One of the commonest is something +like a badly grown raspberry, being formed of a number of nearly +globular chambers of different sizes congregated together. It is called +Globigerina, and some specimens of chalk consist of little else than +Globigerina and granules. + +Let us fix our attention upon the Globigerina. It is the spoor of +the game we are tracking. If we can learn what it is and what are the +conditions of its existence, we shall see our way to the origin and past +history of the chalk. + +A suggestion which may naturally enough present itself is, that these +curious bodies are the result of some process of aggregation which has +taken place in the carbonate of lime; that, just as in winter, the rime +on our windows simulates the most delicate and elegantly arborescent +foliage--proving that the mere mineral water may, under certain +conditions, assume the outward form of organic bodies--so this mineral +substance, carbonate of lime, hidden away in the bowels of the earth, +has taken the shape of these chambered bodies. I am not raising a merely +fanciful and unreal objection. Very learned men, in former days, have +even entertained the notion that all the formed things found in rocks +are of this nature; and if no such conception is at present held to be +admissible, it is because long and varied experience has now shown +that mineral matter never does assume the form and structure we find +in fossils. If any one were to try to persuade you that an oyster-shell +(which is also chiefly composed of carbonate of lime) had crystallized +out of sea-water, I suppose you would laugh at the absurdity. Your +laughter would be justified by the fact that all experience tends to +show that oyster-shells are formed by the agency of oysters, and in no +other way. And if there were no better reasons, we should be justified, +on like grounds, in believing that Globigerina is not the product of +anything but vital activity. + +Happily, however, better evidence in proof of the organic nature of the +Globigerinae than that of analogy is forthcoming. It so happens that +calcareous skeletons, exactly similar to the Globigerinae of the chalk, +are being formed, at the present moment, by minute living creatures, +which flourish in multitudes, literally more numerous than the sands of +the sea-shore, over a large extent of that part of the earth's surface +which is covered by the ocean. + +The history of the discovery of these living Globigerinae, and of the +part which they play in rock building, is singular enough. It is a +discovery which, like others of no less scientific importance, has +arisen, incidentally, out of work devoted to very different and +exceedingly practical interests. + +When men first took to the sea, they speedily learned to look out for +shoals and rocks; and the more the burthen of their ships increased, +the more imperatively necessary it became for sailors to ascertain with +precision the depths of the waters they traversed. Out of this +necessity grew the use of the lead and sounding line; and, ultimately, +marine-surveying, which is the recording of the form of coasts and of +the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-lead, upon charts. + +At the same time, it became desirable to ascertain and to indicate the +nature of the sea-bottom, since this circumstance greatly affects its +goodness as holding ground for anchors. Some ingenious tar, whose name +deserves a better fate than the oblivion into which it has fallen, +attained this object by "arming" the bottom of the lead with a lump of +grease, to which more or less of the sand or mud, or broken shells, as +the case might be, adhered, and was brought to the surface. But, however +well adapted such an apparatus might be for rough nautical purposes, +scientific accuracy could not be expected from the armed lead, and to +remedy its defects (especially when applied to sounding in great depths) +Lieut. Brooke,[61] of the American Navy, some years ago invented a most +ingenious machine, by which a considerable portion of the superficial +layer of the sea-bottom can be scooped out and brought up from any depth +to which the lead descends. + +In 1853, Lieut. Brooke obtained mud from the bottom of the North +Atlantic, between Newfoundland and the Azores, at a depth of more than +ten thousand feet, or two miles, by the help of this sounding apparatus. +The specimens were sent for examination to Ehrenberg [62] of Berlin, +and to Bailey of West Point,[63] and those able microscopists found +that this deep-sea mud was almost entirely composed of the skeletons of +living organisms--the greater proportion of these being just like the +Globigerinae already known to occur in the chalk. + +Thus far, the work had been carried on simply in the interests of +science, but Lieut. Brooke's method of sounding acquired a high +commercial value, when the enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable +[64] between this country and the United States was undertaken. For it +became a matter of immense importance to know, not only the depth of the +sea over the whole line along which the cable was to be laid, but the +exact nature of the bottom, so as to guard against chances of cutting +or fraying the strands of that costly rope. The Admiralty consequently +ordered Captain Dayman, an old friend and shipmate of mine, to ascertain +the depth over the whole line of the cable, and to bring back specimens +of the bottom. In former days, such a command as this might have sounded +very much like one of the impossible things which the young prince in +the Fairy Tales is ordered to do before he can obtain the hand of the +Princess. However, in the months of June and July, 1857, my friend +performed the task assigned to him with great expedition and precision +without, so far as I know, having met with any reward of that kind. +The specimens of Atlantic mud which he procured were sent to me to be +examined and reported upon.* + + * See Appendix to Captain Dayman's "Deep-sea Soundings in + the North Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland and Newfoundland, + made in H.M.S. Cyclops. Published by order of the Lords + Commissioners of the Admiralty, 1858." They have since + formed the subject of an elaborate Memoir by Messrs. Parker + and Jones, published in the Philosophical Transactions for + 1865. + +The result of all these operations is, that we know the contours and the +nature of the surface-soil covered by the North Atlantic, for a distance +of seventeen hundred miles from east to west, as well as we know that of +any part of the dry land. + +It is a prodigious plain--one of the widest and most even plains in the +world. If the sea were drained off, you might drive a wagon all the +way from Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland, to Trinity Bay, in +Newfoundland. And, except upon one sharp incline about two hundred miles +from Valentia, I am not quite sure that it would even be necessary to +put the skid on, so gentle are the ascents and descents upon that long +route. From Valentia the road would lie down-hill for about 200 miles +to the point at which the bottom is now covered by 1700 fathoms of +sea-water. Then would come the central plain, more than a thousand +miles wide, the inequalities of the surface of which would be hardly +perceptible, though the depth of water upon it now varies from 10,000 +to 15,000 feet; and there are places in which Mont Blanc might be sunk +without showing its peak above water. Beyond this, the ascent on the +American side commences, and gradually leads, for about 300 miles, to +the Newfoundland shore. + +Almost the whole of the bottom of this central plain (which extends for +many hundred miles in a north and south direction) is covered by a fine +mud, which, when brought to the surface, dries into a greyish-white +friable substance. You can write with this on a blackboard, if you are +so inclined; and, to the eye, it is quite like very soft, greyish chalk. +Examined chemically, it proves to be composed almost wholly of carbonate +of lime; and if you make a section of it, in the same way as that of the +piece of chalk was made, and view it with the microscope, it presents +innumerable Globigerinae embedded in a granular matrix. + +Thus this deep-sea mud is substantially chalk. I say substantially, +because there are a good many minor differences; but as these have no +bearing on the question immediately before us,--which is the nature of +the Globigerinae of the chalk,--it is unnecessary to speak of them. + +Globigerinae of every size, from the smallest to the largest, are +associated together in the Atlantic mud, and the chambers of many are +filled by a soft animal matter. This soft substance is, in fact, the +remains of the creature to which the Globigerina shell, or rather +skeleton, owes its existence--and which is an animal of the simplest +imaginable description. It is, in fact, a mere particle of living jelly, +without defined parts of any kind--without a mouth, nerves, muscles, +or distinct organs, and only manifesting its vitality to ordinary +observation by thrusting out and retracting from all parts of its +surface, long filamentous processes, which serve for arms and legs. +Yet this amorphous particle, devoid of everything which, in the higher +animals, we call organs, is capable of feeding, growing and multiplying; +of separating from the ocean the small proportion of carbonate of lime +which is dissolved in sea-water; and of building up that substance into +a skeleton for itself, according to a pattern which can be imitated by +no other known agency. + +The notion that animals can live and flourish in the sea, at the vast +depths from which apparently living Globigerinae have been brought +up, does not agree very well with our usual conceptions respecting the +conditions of animal life; and it is not so absolutely impossible as +it might at first appear to be, that the Globigerinae of the Atlantic +sea-bottom do not live and die where they are found. + +As I have mentioned, the soundings from the great Atlantic plain are +almost entirely made up of Globigerinae, with the granules which +have been mentioned and some few other calcareous shells; but a small +percentage of the chalky mud--perhaps at most some five per cent of +it--is of a different nature, and consists of shells and skeletons +composed of silex, or pure flint. These silicious bodies belong partly +to the lowly vegetable organisms which are called Diatomaceae, and +partly to the minute, and extremely simple, animals, termed Radiolaria. +It is quite certain that these creatures do not live at the bottom of +the ocean, but at its surface--where they may be obtained in prodigious +numbers by the use of a properly constructed net. Hence it follows that +these silicious organisms, though they are not heavier than the lightest +dust, must have fallen, in some cases, through fifteen thousand feet of +water, before they reached their final resting-place on the ocean floor. +And, considering how large a surface these bodies expose in proportion +to their weight, it is probable that they occupy a great length of time +in making their burial journey from the surface of the Atlantic to the +bottom. + +But if the Radiolaria and Diatoms are thus rained upon the bottom of the +sea, from the superficial layer of its waters in which they pass their +lives, it is obviously possible that the Globigerinae may be similarly +derived; and if they were so, it would be much more easy to +understand how they obtain their supply of food than it is at present. +Nevertheless, the positive and negative evidence all points the other +way. The skeletons of the full-grown, deep-sea Globigerinae are so +remarkably solid and heavy in proportion to their surface as to seem +little fitted for floating; and, as a matter of fact, they are not to be +found along with the Diatoms and Radiolaria, in the uppermost stratum of +the open ocean. + +It has been observed, again, that the abundance of Globigerinae, in +proportion to other organisms, of like kind, increases with the depth +of the sea; and that deep-water Globigerinae are larger than those +which live in shallower parts of the sea; and such facts negative the +supposition that these organisms have been swept by currents from the +shallows into the deeps of the Atlantic. + +It therefore seems to be hardly doubtful that these wonderful creatures +live and die at the depths in which they are found. + +However, the important points for us are, that the living Globigerinae +are exclusively marine animals, the skeletons of which abound at the +bottom of deep seas; and that there is not a shadow of reason for +believing that the habits of the Globigerinae of the chalk differed from +those of the existing species. But if this be true, there is no escaping +the conclusion that the chalk itself is the dried mud of an ancient deep +sea. + +In working over the soundings collected by Captain Dayman, I was +surprised to find that many of what I have called the "granules" of that +mud, were not, as one might have been tempted to think at first, the +mere powder and waste of Globigerinae, but that they had a definite form +and size. I termed these bodies "coccoliths," and doubted their +organic nature. Dr. Wallich [65] verified my observation, and added the +interesting discovery, that, not unfrequently, bodies similar to these +"coccoliths" were aggregated together into spheroids, which he termed +"coccospheres." So far as we knew, these bodies, the nature of which +is extremely puzzling and problematical, were peculiar to the Atlantic +soundings. + +But, a few years ago, Mr. Sorby,[66] in making a careful examination +of the chalk by means of thin sections and otherwise, observed, as +Ehrenberg had done before him, that much of its granular basis possesses +a definite form. Comparing these formed particles with those in the +Atlantic soundings, he found the two to be identical; and thus proved +that the chalk, like the soundings, contains these mysterious +coccoliths and coccospheres. Here was a further and a most interesting +confirmation, from internal evidence, of the essential identity of +the chalk with modern deep-sea mud. Globigerinae, coccoliths, and +coccospheres are round as the chief constituents of both, and testify +to the general similarity of the conditions under which both have been +formed. + +The evidence furnished by the hewing, facing, and superposition of the +stones of the Pyramids, that these structures were built by men, has +no greater weight than the evidence that the chalk was built by +Globigerinae; and the belief that those ancient pyramid-builders were +terrestrial and air-breathing creatures like ourselves, is it not better +based than the conviction that the chalk-makers lived in the sea? + +But as our belief in the building of the Pyramids by men is not only +grounded on the internal evidences afforded by these structures, but +gathers strength from multitudinous collateral proofs, and is clinched +by the total absence of any reason for a contrary belief; so the +evidence drawn from the Globigerinae that the chalk is an ancient +sea-bottom, is fortified by innumerable independent lines of evidence; +and our belief in the truth of the conclusion to which all positive +testimony tends, receives the like negative justification from the fact +that no other hypothesis has a shadow of foundation. + +It may be worth while briefly to consider a few of these collateral +proofs that the chalk was deposited at the bottom of the sea. + +The great mass of the chalk is composed, as we have seen, of the +skeletons of Globigerinae, and other simple organisms, imbedded in +granular matter. Here and there, however, this hardened mud of the +ancient sea reveals the remains of higher animals which have lived and +died, and left their hard parts in the mud, just as the oysters die and +leave their shells behind them, in the mud of the present seas. + +There are, at the present day, certain groups of animals which are never +found in fresh waters, being unable to live anywhere but in the sea. +Such are the corals; those corallines which are called Polycoa; those +creatures which fabricate the lamp-shells, and are called Brachiopoda; +the pearly Nautilus, and all animals allied to it; and all the forms of +sea-urchins and star-fishes. + +Not only are all these creatures confined to salt water at the present +day; but, so far as our records of the past go, the conditions of their +existence have been the same: hence, their occurrence in any deposit is +as strong evidence as can be obtained, that that deposit was formed in +the sea. Now the remains of animals of all the kinds which have been +enumerated, occur in the chalk, in greater or less abundance; while not +one of those forms of shell-fish which are characteristic of fresh water +has yet been observed in it. + +When we consider that the remains of more than three thousand distinct +species of aquatic animals have been discovered among the fossils of the +chalk, that the great majority of them are of such forms as are now met +with only in the sea, and that there is no reason to believe that any +one of them inhabited fresh water--the collateral evidence that the +chalk represents an ancient sea-bottom acquires as great force as the +proof derived from the nature of the chalk itself. I think you will now +allow that I did not overstate my case when I asserted that we have +as strong grounds for believing that all the vast area of dry land, at +present occupied by the chalk, was once at the bottom of the sea, as we +have for any matter of history whatever; while there is no justification +for any other belief. + +No less certain it is that the time during which the countries we now +call south-east England, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Arabia, +Syria, were more or less completely covered by a deep sea, was of +considerable duration. + +We have already seen that the chalk is, in places, more than a thousand +feet thick. I think you will agree with me, that it must have taken +some time for the skeletons of animalcules of a hundredth of an inch in +diameter to heap up such a mass as that. I have said that throughout the +thickness of the chalk the remains of other animals are scattered. +These remains are often in the most exquisite state of preservation. +The valves of the shell-fishes are commonly adherent; the long spines +of some of the sea-urchins, which would be detached by the smallest +jar, often remain in their places. In a word, it is certain that these +animals have lived and died when the place which they now occupy was +the surface of as much of the chalk as had then been deposited; and that +each has been covered up by the layer of Globigerina mud, upon which the +creatures imbedded a little higher up have, in like manner, lived and +died. But some of these remains prove the existence of reptiles of vast +size in the chalk sea. These lived their time, and had their ancestors +and descendants, which assuredly implies time, reptiles being of slow +growth. + +There is more curious evidence, again, that the process of covering up, +or, in other words, the deposit of Globigerina skeletons, did not go on +very fast. It is demonstrable that an animal of the cretaceous sea might +die, that its skeleton might lie uncovered upon the sea-bottom long +enough to lose all its outward coverings and appendages by putrefaction; +and that, after this had happened, another animal might attach itself +to the dead and naked skeleton, might grow to maturity, and might itself +die before the calcareous mud had buried the whole. + +Cases of this kind are admirably described by Sir Charles Lyell.[67] +He speaks of the frequency with which geologists find in the chalk a +fossilized sea-urchin, to which is attached the lower valve of a Crania. +This is a kind of shell-fish, with a shell composed of two pieces, of +which, as in the oyster, one is fixed and the other free. + +"The upper valve is almost invariably wanting, though occasionally found +in a perfect state of preservation in the white chalk at some distance. +In this case, we see clearly that the sea-urchin first lived from youth +to age, then died and lost its spines, which were carried away. Then the +young Crania adhered to the bared shell, grew and perished in its turn; +after which, the upper valve was separated from the lower, before the +Echinus [68] became enveloped in chalky mud." + +A specimen in the Museum of Practical Geology, in London, still further +prolongs the period which must have elapsed between the death of the +sea-urchin, and its burial by the Globigerinae. For the outward face of +the valve of a Crania, which is attached to a sea-urchin (Micraster), +is itself overrun by an incrusting coralline, which spreads thence over +more or less of the surface of the sea-urchin. It follows that, after +the upper valve of the Crania fell off, the surface of the attached +valve must have remained exposed long enough to allow of the growth of +the whole corraline, since corallines do not live imbedded in mud. + +The progress of knowledge may, one day, enable us to deduce from such +facts as these the maximum rate at which the chalk can have accumulated, +and thus to arrive at the minimum duration of the chalk period. Suppose +that the valve of the Crania upon which a coralline has fixed itself in +the way just described, is so attached to the sea-urchin that no part of +it is more than an inch above the face upon which the sea-urchin rests. +Then, as the coralline could not have fixed itself, if the Crania had +been covered up with chalk mud, and could not have lived had itself +been so covered it follows, that an inch of chalk mud could not have +accumulated within the time between the death and decay of the soft +parts of the sea-urchin and the growth of the coralline to the full size +which it has attained. If the decay of the soft parts of the sea-urchin; +the attachment, growth to maturity, and decay of the Crania; and the +subsequent attachment and growth of the coralline, took a year (which is +a low estimate enough), the accumulation of the inch of chalk must have +taken more than a year: and the deposit of a thousand feet of chalk +must, consequently, have taken more than twelve thousand years. + +The foundation of all this calculation is, of course, a knowledge of the +length of time the Crania and the coralline needed to attain their full +size; and, on this head, precise knowledge is at present wanting. But +there are circumstances which tend to show, that nothing like an inch of +chalk has accumulated during the life of a Crania; and, on any probable +estimate of the length of that life, the chalk period must have had a +much longer duration than that thus roughly assigned to it. + + +Thus, not only is it certain that the chalk is the mud of an ancient +sea-bottom; but it is no less certain, that the chalk sea existed +during an extremely long period, though we may not be prepared to give +a precise estimate of the length of that period in years. The relative +duration is clear, though the absolute duration may not be definable. +The attempt to affix any precise date to the period at which the chalk +sea began, or ended, its existence, is baffled by difficulties of +the same kind. But the relative age of the cretaceous epoch may be +determined with as great ease and certainty as the long duration of that +epoch. + +You will have heard of the interesting discoveries recently made, in +various parts of Western Europe, of flint implements, obviously worked +into shape by human hands, under circumstances which show conclusively +that man is a very ancient denizen of these regions. + +It has been proved that the old populations of Europe, whose existence +has been revealed to us in this way, consisted of savages, such as the +Esquimaux are now; that, in the country which is now France, they hunted +the reindeer, and were familiar with the ways of the mammoth and the +bison. The physical geography of France was in those days different from +what it is now--the river Somme,[69] for instance, having cut its bed +a hundred feet deeper between that time and this; and, it is probable, +that the climate was more like that of Canada or Siberia, than that of +Western Europe. + +The existence of these people is forgotten even in the traditions of +the oldest historical nations. The name and fame of them had utterly +vanished until a few years back; and the amount of physical change which +has been effected since their day, renders it more than probable that, +venerable as are some of the historical nations, the workers of the +chipped flints of Hoxne or of Amiens [70] are to them, as they are to +us, in point of antiquity. + +But, if we assign to these hoar relics of long-vanished generations of +men the greatest age that can possibly be claimed for them, they are +not older than the drift, or boulder clay, which, in comparison with the +chalk, is but a very juvenile deposit. You need go no further than your +own sea-board for evidence of this fact. At one of the most charming +spots on the coast of Norfolk, Cromer, you will see the boulder clay +forming a vast mass, which lies upon the chalk, and must consequently +have come into existence after it. Huge boulders of chalk are, in fact, +included in the clay, and have evidently been brought to the position +they now occupy, by the same agency as that which has planted blocks of +syenite from Norway side by side with them. + +The chalk, then, is certainly older than the boulder clay. If you ask +how much, I will again take you no further than the same spot upon your +own coasts for evidence. I have spoken of the boulder clay and drift as +resting upon the chalk. That is not strictly true. Interposed between +the chalk and the drift is a comparatively insignificant layer, +containing vegetable matter. But that layer tells a wonderful history. +It is full of stumps of trees standing as they grew. Fir-trees are there +with their cones, and hazel-bushes with their nuts; there stand the +stools of oak and yew trees, beeches and alders. Hence this stratum is +appropriately called the "forest-bed." + +It is obvious that the chalk must have been up-heaved and converted into +dry land, before the timber trees could grow upon it. As the boles of +some of these trees are from two to three feet in diameter, it is no +less clear that the dry land this formed remained in the same condition +for long ages. And not only do the remains of stately oaks and +well-grown firs testify to the duration of this condition of things, +but additional evidence to the same effect is afforded by the abundant +remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotomuses and other great wild +beasts, which it has yielded to the zealous search of such men as the +Rev. Mr. Gunn.[71] + +When you look at such a collection as he has formed, and bethink you +that these elephantine bones did veritably carry their owners about, and +these great grinders crunch, in the dark woods of which the forest-bed +is now the only trace, it is impossible not to feel that they are +as good evidence of the lapse of time as the annual rings of the +tree-stumps. + +Thus there is a writing upon the walls of cliffs at Cromer, and whoso +runs may read it. It tells us, with an authority which cannot be +impeached, that the ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and +remained dry land, until it was covered with forest, stocked with the +great game whose spoils have rejoiced your geologists. How long it +remained in that condition cannot be said; but "the whirligig of time +[72] brought its revenges" in those days as in these. That dry land, +with the bones and teeth of generations of long-lived elephants, hidden +away among the gnarled roots and dry leaves of its ancient trees, sank +gradually to the bottom of the icy sea, which covered it with huge +masses of drift and boulder clay. Sea-beasts, such as the walrus, now +restricted to the extreme north, paddled about where birds had twittered +among the topmost twigs of the fir-trees. How long this state of things +endured we know not, but at length it came to an end. The upheaved +glacial mud hardened into the soil of modern Norfolk. Forests grew once +more, the wolf and the beaver replaced the reindeer and the elephant; +and at length what we call the history of England dawned. + +Thus you have within the limits of your own county, proof that the chalk +can justly claim a very much greater antiquity than even the oldest +physical traces of mankind. But we may go further and demonstrate, by +evidence of the same authority as that which testifies to the existence +of the father of men, that the chalk is vastly older than Adam himself. + +The Book of Genesis informs us that Adam, immediately upon his creation, +and before the appearance of Eve, was placed in the Garden of Eden. +The problem of the geographical position of Eden has greatly vexed +the spirits of the learned in such matters, but there is one point +respecting which, so far as I know, no commentator has ever raised a +doubt. This is, that of the four rivers which are said to run out of it, +Euphrates and Hiddekel [73] are identical with the rivers now known by +the names of Euphrates and Tigris. + +But the whole country in which these mighty rivers take their origin, +and through which they run, is composed of rocks which are either of the +same age as the chalk, or of later date. So that the chalk must not only +have been formed, but, after its formation, the time required for the +deposit of these later rocks, and for their upheaval into dry land, must +have elapsed, before the smallest brook which feeds the swift stream of +"the great river, the river of Babylon,"[74] began to flow. + + +Thus, evidence which cannot be rebutted, and which need not be +strengthened, though if time permitted I might indefinitely increase its +quantity, compels you to believe that the earth, from the time of the +chalk to the present day, has been the theatre of a series of changes as +vast in their amount, as they were slow in their progress. The area +on which we stand has been first sea and then land, for at least four +alternations; and has remained in each of these conditions for a period +of great length. + +Nor have these wonderful metamorphoses of sea into land, and of land +into sea, been confined to one corner of England. During the chalk +period, or "cretaceous epoch," not one of the present great physical +features of the globe was in existence. Our great mountain ranges, +Pyrenees, Alps, Himalayas, Andes, have all been upheaved since the chalk +was deposited, and the cretaceous sea flowed over the sites of Sinai and +Ararat. + +All this is certain, because rocks of cretaceous, or still later, date +have shared in the elevatory movements which gave rise to these mountain +chains; and may be found perched up, in some cases, many thousand feet +high upon their flanks. And evidence of equal cogency demonstrates that, +though, in Norfolk, the forest-bed rests directly upon the chalk, yet +it does so, not because the period at which the forest grew immediately +followed that at which the chalk was formed, but because an immense +lapse of time, represented elsewhere by thousands of feet of rock, is +not indicated at Cromer. + +I must ask you to believe that there is no less conclusive proof that a +still more prolonged succession of similar changes occurred, before the +chalk was deposited. Nor have we any reason to think that the first term +in the series of these changes is known. The oldest sea-beds preserved +to us are sands, and mud, and pebbles, the wear and tear of rocks which +were formed in still older oceans. + +But, great as is the magnitude of these physical changes of the world, +they have been accompanied by a no less striking series of modifications +in its living inhabitants. + +All the great classes of animals, beasts of the field, fowls of the air, +creeping things, and things which dwell in the waters, flourished upon +the globe long ages before the chalk was deposited. Very few, however, +if any, of these ancient forms of animal life were identical with those +which now live. Certainly not one of the higher animals was of the same +species as any of those now in existence. The beasts of the field, in +the days before the chalk, were not our beasts of the field, nor the +fowls of the air such as those which the eye of men has seen flying, +unless his antiquity dates infinitely further back than we at present +surmise. If we could be carried back into those times, we should be as +one suddenly set down in Australia before it was colonized. We should +see mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, snails, and the like, +clearly recognisable as such, and yet not one of them would be just the +same as those with which we are familiar, and many would be extremely +different. + +From that time to the present, the population of the world has undergone +slow and gradual, but incessant changes. There has been no grand +catastrophe--no destroyer has swept away the forms of life of one +period, and replaced them by a totally new creation; but one species +has vanished and another has taken its place; creatures of one type of +structure have diminished, those of another have increased, as time has +passed on. And thus, while the differences between the living creatures +of the time before the chalk and those of the present day appear +startling, if placed side by side, we are led from one to the other by +the most gradual progress, if we follow the course of Nature through +the whole series of those relics of her operations which she has left +behind. + +And it is by the population of the chalk sea that the ancient and the +modern inhabitants of the world are most completely connected. The +groups which are dying out flourish, side by side, with the groups which +are now the dominant forms of life. + +Thus the chalk contains remains of those strange flying and swimming +reptiles, the pterodactyl, the ichthyosaurus, and the plesiosaurus, +which are found in no later deposits, but abounded in preceding ages. +The chambered shells called ammonites and belemnites, which are so +characteristic of the period preceding the cretaceous, in like manner +die with it. + +But, amongst these fading remainders of a previous state of things, +are some very modern forms of life, looking like Yankee pedlars among +a tribe of Red Indians. Crocodiles of modern type appear; bony fishes, +many of them very similar to existing species almost supplant the forms +of fish which predominate in more ancient seas; and many kinds of living +shellfish first become known to us in the chalk. The vegetation acquires +a modern aspect. A few living animals are not even distinguishable as +species, from those which existed at that remote epoch. The Globigerina +of the present day, for example, is not different specifically from that +of the chalk; and the same may be said of many other Foraminifera. I +think it probable that critical and unprejudiced examination will show +that more than one species of much higher animals have had a similar +longevity; but the only example, which I can at present give confidently +is the snake's-head lamp-shell (Terebratulina caput serpentis), which +lives in our English seas and abounded (as Terebratulina striata of +authors) in the chalk. + +The longest line of human ancestry must hide its diminished head before +the pedigree of this insignificant shell-fish. We Englishmen are proud +to have an ancestor who was present at the Battle of Hastings. The +ancestors of Terebratulina caput serpentis may have been present at a +battle of Ichthyosauria in that part of the sea which, when the chalk +was forming, flowed over the site of Hastings. While all around has +changed, this Terebratulina has peacefully propagated its species from +generation to generation, and stands to this day, as a living testimony +to the continuity of the present with the past history of the globe. + + +Up to this moment I have stated, so far as I know, nothing but +well-authenticated facts, and the immediate conclusions which they force +upon the mind. + +But the mind is so constituted that it does not willingly rest in facts +and immediate causes, but seeks always after a knowledge of the remoter +links in the chain of causation. + +Taking the many changes of any given spot of the earth's surface, from +sea to land and from land to sea, as an established fact, we cannot +refrain from asking ourselves how these changes have occurred. And when +we have explained them--as they must be explained--by the alternate slow +movements of elevation and depression which have affected the crust of +the earth, we go still further back, and ask, Why these movements? + +I am not certain that any one can give you a satisfactory answer to that +question. Assuredly I cannot. All that can be said, for certain, is, +that such movements are part of the ordinary course of nature, inasmuch +as they are going on at the present time. Direct proof may be given, +that some parts of the land of the northern hemisphere are at this +moment insensibly rising and others insensibly sinking; and there is +indirect, but perfectly satisfactory, proof, that an enormous area now +covered by the Pacific has been deepened thousands of feet, since the +present inhabitants of that sea came into existence. + +Thus there is not a shadow of a reason for believing that the physical +changes of the globe, in past times have been effected by other than +natural causes. + +Is there any more reason for believing that the concomitant +modifications in the forms of the living inhabitants of the globe have +been brought about in other ways? + +Before attempting to answer this question, let us try to form a distinct +mental picture of what has happened, in some special case. + +The crocodiles are animals which, as a group, have a very vast +antiquity. They abounded ages before the chalk was deposited; they +throng the rivers in warm climates, at the present day. There is a +difference in the form of the joints of the back-bone, and in some minor +particulars, between the crocodiles of the present epoch and those which +lived before the chalk; but in the cretaceous epoch, as I have already +mentioned, the crocodiles had assumed the modern type of structure. +Notwithstanding this, the crocodiles of the chalk are not identically +the same as those which lived in the times called "older tertiary," +which succeeded the cretaceous epoch; and the crocodiles of the older +tertiaries are not identical with those of the newer tertiaries, nor are +these identical with existing forms. I leave open the question whether +particular species may have lived on from epoch to epoch. But each +epoch has had its peculiar crocodiles; though all, since the chalk, have +belonged to the modern type, and differ simply in their proportions, and +in such structural particulars as are discernible only to trained eyes. + +How is the existence of this long succession of different species of +crocodiles to be accounted for? + +Only two suppositions seem to be open to us--Either each species of +crocodile has been specially created, or it has arisen out of some +pre-existing form by the operation of natural causes. + +Choose your hypothesis; I have chosen mine. I can find no warranty for +believing in the distinct creation of a score of successive species of +crocodiles in the course of countless ages of time. Science gives no +countenance to such a wild fancy; nor can even the perverse ingenuity +of a commentator pretend to discover this sense, in the simple words +in which the writer of Genesis records the proceedings of the fifth and +sixth days of the Creation. + +On the other hand, I see no good reason for doubting the necessary +alternative, that all these varied species have been evolved from +pre-existing crocodilian forms, by the operation of causes as completely +a part of the common order of nature, as those which have effected the +changes of the inorganic world. + +Few will venture to affirm that the reasoning which applies to +crocodiles loses its force among other animals, or among plants. If one +series of species has come into existence by the operation of natural +causes, it seems folly to deny that all may have arisen in the same way. + + +A small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I were to put the bit +of chalk with which we started into the hot but obscure flame of burning +hydrogen, it would presently shine like the sun. It seems to me that +this physical metamorphosis is no false image of what has been +the result of our subjecting it to a jet of fervent, though nowise +brilliant, thought to-night. It has become luminous, and its clear rays, +penetrating the abyss of the remote past, have brought within our ken +some stages of the evolution of the earth. And in the shifting "without +haste, but without rest"[75] of the land and sea, as in the endless +variation of the forms assumed by living beings, we have observed +nothing but the natural product of the forces originally possessed by +the substance of the universe. + + + + +THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION [76] + + +I know quite well that launching myself into this discussion [77] is a +very dangerous operation; that it is a very large subject, and one +which is difficult to deal with, however much I may trespass upon +your patience in the time allotted to me. But the discussion is so +fundamental, it is so completely impossible to make up one's mind on +these matters until one has settled the question, that I will even +venture to make the experiment. A great lawyer-statesman and philosopher +of a former age--I mean Francis Bacon [78]--said that truth came out +of error much more rapidly than it came out of confusion. There is a +wonderful truth in that saying. Next to being right in this world, the +best of all things is to be clearly and definitely wrong, because you +will come out somewhere. If you go buzzing about between right and +wrong, vibrating and fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are +absolutely and thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some of +these days, have the extreme good fortune of knocking your head against +a fact, and that sets you all straight again. So I will not trouble +myself as to whether I may be right or wrong in what I am about to say, +but at any rate I hope to be clear and definite; and then you will be +able to judge for yourselves whether, in following out the train of +thought I have to introduce, you knock your heads against facts or not. + +I take it that the whole object of education is, in the first place, +to train the faculties of the young in such a manner as to give their +possessors the best chance of being happy [79] and useful in their +generation; and, in the second place, to furnish them with the most +important portions of that immense capitalised experience of the human +race which we call knowledge of various kinds. I am using the term +knowledge in its widest possible sense; and the question is, what +subjects to select by training and discipline, in which the object I +have just defined may be best attained. + +I must call your attention further to this fact, that all the subjects +of our thoughts--all feelings and propositions (leaving aside our +sensations as the mere materials and occasions of thinking and feeling), +all our mental furniture--may be classified under one of two heads--as +either within the province of the intellect, something that can be put +into propositions and affirmed or denied; or as within the province +of feeling, or that which, before the name was defiled, was called +the aesthetic side of our nature, and which can neither be proved nor +disproved, but only felt and known. + +According to the classification which I have put before you, then, the +subjects of all knowledge are divisible into the two groups, matters +of science and matters of art; for all things with which the reasoning +faculty alone is occupied, come under the province of science; and in +the broadest sense, and not in the narrow and technical sense in which +we are now accustomed to use the word art, all things feelable, all +things which stir our emotions, come under the term of art, in the sense +of the subject-matter of the aesthetic faculty. So that we are shut +up to this--that the business of education is, in the first place, to +provide the young with the means and the habit of observation; and, +secondly, to supply the subject-matter of knowledge either in the shape +of science or of art, or of both combined. + +Now, it is a very remarkable fact--but it is true of most things in this +world--that there is hardly anything one-sided, or of one nature; and +it is not immediately obvious what of the things that interest us may be +regarded as pure science, and what may be regarded as pure art. It may +be that there are some peculiarly constituted persons who, before they +have advanced far into the depths of geometry, find artistic beauty +about it; but, taking the generality of mankind, I think it may be +said that, when they begin to learn mathematics, their whole souls +are absorbed in tracing the connection between the premisses and the +conclusion, and that to them geometry is pure science. So I think it +may be said that mechanics and osteology are pure science. On the other +hand, melody in music is pure art. You cannot reason about it; there +is no proposition involved in it. So, again, in the pictorial art, an +arabesque, or a "harmony in grey,"[80] touches none but the aesthetic +faculty. But a great mathematician, and even many persons who are not +great mathematicians, will tell you that they derive immense pleasure +from geometrical reasonings. Everybody knows mathematicians speak of +solutions and problems as "elegant," and they tell you that a certain +mass of mystic symbols is "beautiful, quite lovely." Well, you do not +see it. They do see it, because the intellectual process, the process of +comprehending the reasons symbolised by these figures and these signs, +confers upon them a sort of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual +symmetry. Take a science of which I may speak with more confidence, and +which is the most attractive of those I am concerned with. It is what we +call morphology, which consists in tracing out the unity in variety of +the infinitely diversified structures of animals and plants. I cannot +give you any example of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely +real than a pleasure of this kind--the pleasure which arises in one's +mind when a whole mass of different structures run into one harmony +as the expression of a central law. That is where the province of art +overlays and embraces the province of intellect. And, if I may venture +to express an opinion on such a subject, the great majority of forms of +art are not in the sense what I just now defined them to be--pure +art; but they derive much of their quality from simultaneous and even +unconscious excitement of the intellect. + +When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so now; and it so +happened that I had the opportunity of hearing much good music. Among +other things, I had abundant opportunities of hearing that great old +master, Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well--though I knew +nothing about music then, and, I may add, know nothing whatever about it +now--the intense satisfaction and delight which I had in listening, by +the hour together, to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure which remains with +me, I am glad to think; but, of late years, I have tried to find out +the why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me that the pleasure +derived from musical compositions of this kind is essentially of the +same nature as that which is derived from pursuits which are commonly +regarded as purely intellectual. I mean, that the source of pleasure is +exactly the same as in most of my problems in morphology--that you +have the theme in one of the old master's works followed out in all its +endless variations, always appearing and always reminding you of unity +in variety. So in painting; what is called "truth to nature" is the +intellectual element coming in, and truth to nature depends entirely +upon the intellectual culture of the person to whom art is addressed. If +you are in Australia, you may get credit for being a good artist--I +mean among the natives--if you can draw a kangaroo after a fashion. But, +among men of higher civilisation, the intellectual knowledge we possess +brings its criticism into our appreciation of works of art, and we are +obliged to satisfy it, as well as the mere sense of beauty in colour and +in outline. And so, the higher the culture and information of those +whom art addresses, the more exact and precise must be what we call its +"truth to nature." + +If we turn to literature, the same thing is true, and you find works +of literature which may be said to be pure art. A little song of +Shakespeare or of Goethe is pure art; it is exquisitely beautiful, +although its intellectual content may be nothing. A series of pictures +is made to pass before your mind by the meaning of words, and the effect +is a melody of ideas. Nevertheless, the great mass of the literature +we esteem is valued, not merely because of having artistic form, but +because of its intellectual content; and the value is the higher the +more precise, distinct, and true is that intellectual content. And, +if you will let me for a moment speak of the very highest forms of +literature, do we not regard them as highest simply because the more we +know the truer they seem, and the more competent we are to appreciate +beauty the more beautiful they are? No man ever understands Shakespeare +until he is old, though the youngest may admire him, the reason being +that he satisfies the artistic instinct of the youngest and harmonises +with the ripest and richest experience of the oldest. + +I have said this much to draw your attention to what, in my mind, lies +at the root of all this matter, and at the understanding of one another +by the men of science on the one hand, and the men of literature, and +history, and art, on the other. It is not a question whether one order +of study or another should predominate. It is a question of what +topics of education you shall select which will combine all the needful +elements in such due proportion as to give the greatest amount of +food, support, and encouragement to those faculties which enable us to +appreciate truth, and to profit by those sources of innocent happiness +which are open to us, and, at the same time, to avoid that which is bad, +and coarse, and ugly, and keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls and +dangers which beset those who break through the natural or moral laws. + +I address myself, in this spirit, to the consideration of the question +of the value of purely literary education. Is it good and sufficient, or +is it insufficient and bad? Well, here I venture to say that there are +literary educations and literary educations. If I am to understand +by that term the education that was current in the great majority of +middle-class schools, and upper schools too, in this country when I was +a boy, and which consisted absolutely and almost entirely in keeping +boys for eight or ten years at learning the rules of Latin and Greek +grammar, construing certain Latin and Greek authors, and possibly making +verses which, had they been English verses, would have been condemned +as abominable doggerel,--if that is what you mean by liberal education, +then I say it is scandalously insufficient and almost worthless. My +reason for saying so is not from the point of view of science at all, +but from the point of view of literature. I say the thing professes to +be literary education that is not a literary education at all. It was +not literature at all that was taught, but science in a very bad form. +It is quite obvious that grammar is science and not literature. The +analysis of a text by the help of the rules of grammar is just as much a +scientific operation as the analysis of a chemical compound by the help +of the rules of chemical analysis. There is nothing that appeals to the +aesthetic faculty in that operation; and I ask multitudes of men of +my own age, who went through this process, whether they ever had a +conception of art or literature until they obtained it for themselves +after leaving school? Then you may say, "If that is so, if the education +was scientific, why cannot you be satisfied with it?" I say, because +although it is a scientific training, it is of the most inadequate and +inappropriate kind. If there is any good at all in scientific education +it is that men should be trained, as I said before, to know things for +themselves at first hand, and that they should understand every step of +the reason of that which they do. + +I desire to speak with the utmost respect of that science--philology--of +which grammar is a part and parcel; yet everybody knows that grammar, as +it is usually learned at school, affords no scientific training. It is +taught just as you would teach the rules of chess or draughts. On the +other hand, if I am to understand by a literary education the study +of the literatures of either ancient or modern nations--but especially +those of antiquity, and especially that of ancient Greece; if this +literature is studied, not merely from the point of view of philological +science, and its practical application to the interpretation of texts, +but as an exemplification of and commentary upon the principles of +art; if you look upon the literature of a people as a chapter in the +development of the human mind, if you work out this in a broad spirit, +and with such collateral references to morals and politics, and physical +geography, and the like as are needful to make you comprehend what the +meaning of ancient literature and civilisation is,--then, assuredly, +it affords a splendid and noble education. But I still think it is +susceptible of improvement, and that no man will ever comprehend the +real secret of the difference between the ancient world and our present +time, unless he has learned to see the difference which the late +development of physical science has made between the thought of this day +and the thought of that, and he will never see that difference, unless +he has some practical insight into some branches of physical science; +and you must remember that a literary education such as that which I +have just referred to, is out of the reach of those whose school life is +cut short at sixteen or seventeen. + +But, you will say, all this is fault-finding; let us hear what you have +in the way of positive suggestion. Then I am bound to tell you that, +if I could make a clean sweep of everything--I am very glad I cannot +because I might, and probably should, make mistakes,--but if I could +make a clean sweep of everything and start afresh, I should, in the +first place, secure that training of the young in reading and writing, +and in the habit of attention and observation, both to that which is +told them, and that which they see, which everybody agrees to. But in +addition to that, I should make it absolutely necessary for everybody, +for a longer or shorter period, to learn to draw. Now, you may say, +there are some people who cannot draw, however much they may be taught. +I deny that in toto, because I never yet met with anybody who could not +learn to write. Writing is a form of drawing; therefore if you give the +same attention and trouble to drawing as you do to writing, depend upon +it, there is nobody who cannot be made to draw, more or less well. +Do not misapprehend me. I do not say for one moment you would make an +artistic draughtsman. Artists are not made; they grow. You may improve +the natural faculty in that direction, but you cannot make it; but you +can teach simple drawing, and you will find it an implement of learning +of extreme value. I do not think its value can be exaggerated, because +it gives you the means of training the young in attention and accuracy, +which are the two things in which all mankind are more deficient than in +any other mental quality whatever. The whole of my life has been spent +in trying to give my proper attention to things and to be accurate, and +I have not succeeded as well as I could wish; and other people, I am +afraid, are not much more fortunate. You cannot begin this habit too +early, and I consider there is nothing of so great a value as the habit +of drawing, to secure those two desirable ends. + +Then we come to the subject-matter, whether scientific or aesthetic, of +education, and I should naturally have no question at all about teaching +the elements of physical science of the kind I have sketched, in a +practical manner; but among scientific topics, using the word scientific +in the broadest sense, I would also include the elements of the theory +of morals and of that of political and social life, which, strangely +enough, it never seems to occur to anybody to teach a child. I would +have the history of our own country, and of all the influences which +have been brought to bear upon it, with incidental geography, not as +a mere chronicle of reigns and battles, but as a chapter in the +development of the race, and the history of civilisation. + +Then with respect to aesthetic knowledge and discipline, we have happily +in the English language one of the most magnificent storehouses of +artistic beauty and of models of literary excellence which exists in +the world at the present time. I have said before, and I repeat it here, +that if a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out of +his Bible, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes,[81] and +Bishop Berkeley,[82] to mention only a few of our illustrious writers--I +say, if he cannot get it out of those writers he cannot get it out of +anything; and I would assuredly devote a very large portion of the time +of every English child to the careful study of the models of English +writing of such varied and wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is +still more important and still more neglected, the habit of using that +language with precision, with force, and with art. I fancy we are almost +the only nation in the world who seem to think that composition comes +by nature. The French attend to their own language, the Germans study +theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth their while. +Nor would I fail to include, in the course of study I am sketching, +translations of all the best works of antiquity, or of the modern world. +It is a very desirable thing to read Homer in Greek; but if you don't +happen to know Greek, the next best thing we can do is to read as good a +translation of it as we have recently been furnished with in prose.[83] +You won't get all you would get from the original, but you may get a +great deal; and to refuse to know this great deal because you cannot get +all, seems to be as sensible as for a hungry man to refuse bread because +he cannot get partridge. Finally, I would add instruction in either +music or painting, or, if the child should be so unhappy, as sometimes +happens, as to have no faculty for either of those, and no possibility +of doing anything in any artistic sense with them, then I would see what +could be done with literature alone; but I would provide, in the fullest +sense, for the development of the aesthetic side of the mind. In my +judgment, those are all the essentials of education for an English +child. With that outfit, such as it might be made in the time given +to education which is within the reach of nine-tenths of the +population--with that outfit, an Englishman, within the limits of +English life, is fitted to go anywhere, to occupy the highest positions, +to fill the highest offices of the State, and to become distinguished +in practical pursuits, in science, or in art. For, if he have the +opportunity to learn all those things, and have his mind disciplined +in the various directions the teaching of those topics would have +necessitated, then, assuredly, he will be able to pick up, on his road +through life, all the rest of the intellectual baggage he wants. + +If the educational time at our disposition were sufficient, there +are one or two things I would add to those I have just now called the +essentials; and perhaps you will be surprised to hear, though I hope you +will not, that I should add, not more science, but one, or, if possible, +two languages. The knowledge of some other language than one's own is, +in fact, of singular intellectual value. Many of the faults and mistakes +of the ancient philosophers are traceable to the fact that they knew +no language but their own, and were often led into confusing the symbol +with the thought which it embodied. I think it is Locke [84] who says +that one-half of the mistakes of philosophers have arisen from questions +about words; and one of the safest ways of delivering yourself from the +bondage of words is, to know how ideas look in words to which you are +not accustomed. That is one reason for the study of language; another +reason is, that it opens new fields in art and in science. Another is +the practical value of such knowledge; and yet another is this, that +if your languages are properly chosen, from the time of learning the +additional languages you will know your own language better than ever +you did. So, I say, if the time given to education permits, add Latin +and German. Latin, because it is the key to nearly one-half of English +and to all the Romance languages; and German, because it is the key to +almost all the remainder of English, and helps you to understand a +race from whom most of us have sprung, and who have a character and +a literature of a fateful force in the history of the world, such as +probably has been allotted to those of no other people, except the Jews, +the Greeks, and ourselves. Beyond these, the essential and the eminently +desirable elements of all education, let each man take up his special +line--the historian devote himself to his history, the man of science +to his science, the man of letters to his culture of that kind, and the +artist to his special pursuit. + + +Bacon has prefaced some of his works with no more than this: Franciscus +Bacon sic cogitavit;[85] let "sic cogitavi" be the epilogue to what I +have ventured to address to you to-night. + + + + +THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION [86] + + +The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of +the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode +at which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and +exact. There is no more difference, but there is just the same kind of +difference, between the mental operations of a man of science and those +of an ordinary person, as there is between the operations and methods of +a baker or of a butcher weighing out his goods in common scales, and the +operations of a chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis +by means of his balance and finely graduated weights. It is not that +the action of the scales in the one case, and the balance in the other, +differ in the principles of their construction or manner of working; but +the beam of one is set on an infinitely finer axis than the other, and +of course turns by the addition of a much smaller weight. + +You will understand this better, perhaps, if I give you some familiar +example. You have all heard it repeated, I dare say, that men of science +work by means of induction and deduction, and that by the help of these +operations, they, in a sort of sense, wring from Nature certain other +things, which are called natural laws, and causes, and that out of +these, by some cunning skill of their own, they build up hypotheses and +theories. And it is imagined by many, that the operations of the common +mind can be by no means compared with these processes, and that they +have to be acquired by a sort of special apprenticeship to the craft. +To hear all these large words, you would think that the mind of a man of +science must be constituted differently from that of his fellow men; but +if you will not be frightened by terms, you will discover that you are +quite wrong, and that all these terrible apparatus [87] are being used +by yourselves every day and every hour of your lives. + +There is a well-known incident in one of Moliere's plays,[88] where the +author makes the hero express unbounded delight on being told that he +had been talking prose during the whole of his life. In the same way, I +trust, that you will take comfort, and be delighted with yourselves, on +the discovery that you have been acting on the principles of inductive +and deductive philosophy during the same period. Probably there is not +one here who has not in the course of the day had occasion to set in +motion a complex train of reasoning, of the very same kind, though +differing of course in degree, as that which a scientific man goes +through in tracing the causes of natural phenomena. + +A very trivial circumstance will serve to exemplify this. Suppose you +go into a fruiterer's shop, wanting an apple,--you take up one, and, on +biting it, you find it is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard +and green. You take up another one, and that too is hard, green, and +sour. The shopman offers you a third; but, before biting it, you examine +it, and find that it is hard and green, and you immediately say that you +will not have it, as it must be sour, like those that you have already +tried. + +Nothing can be more simple than that, you think; but if you will take +the trouble to analyse and trace out into its logical elements what has +been done by the mind, you will be greatly surprised. In the first place +you have performed the operation of induction. You found that, in +two experiences, hardness and greenness in apples went together with +sourness. It was so in the first case, and it was confirmed by the +second. True, it is a very small basis, but still it is enough to make +an induction from; you generalise the facts, and you expect to find +sourness in apples where you get hardness and greenness. You found upon +that a general law that all hard and green apples are sour; and that, +so far as it goes, is a perfect induction. Well, having got your natural +law in this way, when you are offered another apple which you find is +hard and green, you say, "All hard and green apples are sour; this +apple is hard and green, therefore this apple is sour." That train of +reasoning is what logicians call a syllogism, and has all its various +parts and terms,--its major premiss, its minor premiss and its +conclusion. And, by the help of further reasoning, which, if drawn out, +would have to be exhibited in two or three other syllogisms, you arrive +at your final determination, "I will not have that apple." So that, you +see, you have, in the first place, established a law by induction, and +upon that you have founded a deduction, and reasoned out the special +particular case. Well now, suppose, having got your conclusion of the +law, that at some time afterwards, you are discussing the qualities +of apples with a friend: you will say to him, "It is a very curious +thing,--but I find that all hard and green apples are sour!" Your friend +says to you, "But how do you know that?" You at once reply, "Oh, because +I have tried them over and over again, and have always found them to be +so." Well, if we were talking science instead of common sense, we should +call that an experimental verification. And, if still opposed, you go +further, and say, "I have heard from the people in Somersetshire and +Devonshire, where a large number of apples are grown, that they have +observed the same thing. It is also found to be the case in Normandy, +and in North America. In short, I find it to be the universal experience +of mankind wherever attention has been directed to the subject." +Whereupon, your friend, unless he is a very unreasonable man, agrees +with you, and is convinced that you are quite right in the conclusion +you have drawn. He believes, although perhaps he does not know he +believes it, that the more extensive verifications are,--that the more +frequently experiments have been made, and results of the same kind +arrived at,--that the more varied the conditions under which the same +results are attained, the more certain is the ultimate conclusion, and +he disputes the question no further. He sees that the experiment has +been tried under all sorts of conditions, as to time, place, and people, +with the same result; and he says with you, therefore, that the law you +have laid down must be a good one, and he must believe it. + +In science we do the same thing;--the philosopher exercises precisely +the same faculties, though in a much more delicate manner. In scientific +inquiry it becomes a matter of duty to expose a supposed law to every +possible kind of verification, and to take care, moreover, that this is +done intentionally, and not left to a mere accident, as in the case of +the apples. And in science, as in common life, our confidence in a law +is in exact proportion to the absence of variation in the result of our +experimental verifications. For instance, if you let go your grasp of +an article you may have in your hand, it will immediately fall to +the ground. That is a very common verification of one of the best +established laws of nature--that of gravitation. The method by which men +of science establish the existence of that law is exactly the same as +that by which we have established the trivial proposition about +the sourness of hard and green apples. But we believe it in such an +extensive, thorough, and unhesitating manner because the universal +experience of mankind verifies it, and we can verify it ourselves at any +time; and that is the strongest possible foundation on which any natural +law can rest. + +So much, then, by way of proof that the method of establishing laws in +science is exactly the same as that pursued in common life. Let us now +turn to another matter (though really it is but another phase of the +same question), and that is, the method by which, from the relations of +certain phenomena, we prove that some stand in the position of causes +towards the others. + +I want to put the case clearly before you, and I will therefore show you +what I mean by another familiar example. I will suppose that one of you, +on coming down in the morning to the parlor of your house, finds that a +tea-pot and some spoons which had been left in the room on the previous +evening are gone,--the window is open, and you observe the mark of a +dirty hand on the window-frame, and perhaps, in addition to that, you +notice the impress of a hob-nailed shoe on the gravel outside. All these +phenomena have struck your attention instantly, and before two seconds +have passed you say, "Oh, somebody has broken open the window, entered +the room, and run off with the spoons and the tea-pot!" That speech is +out of your mouth in a moment. And you will probably add, "I know there +has; I am quite sure of it!" You mean to say exactly what you know; +but in reality you are giving expression to what is, in all essential +particulars, an hypothesis. You do not KNOW it at all; it is nothing but +an hypothesis rapidly framed in your own mind. And it is an hypothesis +founded on a long train of inductions and deductions. + +What are those inductions and deductions, and how have you got at this +hypothesis? You have observed in the first place, that the window +is open; but by a train of reasoning involving many inductions and +deductions, you have probably arrived long before at the general +law--and a very good one it is--that windows do not open of themselves; +and you therefore conclude that something has opened the window. A +second general law that you have arrived at in the same way is, that +tea-pots and spoons do not go out of a window spontaneously, and you are +satisfied that, as they are not now where you left them, they have been +removed. In the third place, you look at the marks on the windowsill, +and the shoe-marks outside, and you say that in all previous experience +the former kind of mark has never been produced by anything else but +the hand of a human being; and the same experience shows that no other +animal but man at present wears shoes with hob-nails in them such as +would produce the marks in the gravel. I do not know, even if we could +discover any of those "missing links" that are talked about, that they +would help us to any other conclusion! At any rate the law which states +our present experience is strong enough for my present purpose. You next +reach the conclusion that, as these kind [89] of marks have not been +left by any other animal than man, or are liable to be formed in any +other way than a man's hand and shoe, the marks in question have been +formed by a man in that way. You have, further, a general law, founded +on observation and experience, and that, too, is, I am sorry to say, a +very universal and unimpeachable one,--that some men are thieves; +and you assume at once from all these premisses--and that is what +constitutes your hypothesis--that the man who made the marks outside and +on the window-sill, opened the window, got into the room, and stole +your tea-pot and spoons. You have now arrived at a vera causa;--you +have assumed a cause which, it is plain, is competent to produce all the +phenomena you have observed. You can explain all these phenomena only by +the hypothesis of a thief. But that is a hypothetical conclusion, of the +justice of which you have no absolute proof at all; it is only rendered +highly probable by a series of inductive and deductive reasonings. + +I suppose your first action, assuming that you are a man of ordinary +common sense, and that you have established this hypothesis to your own +satisfaction, will very likely be to go off for the police, and set +them on the track of the burglar, with the view to the recovery of your +property. But just as you are starting with this object, some person +comes in, and on learning what you are about, says, "My good friend, +you are going on a great deal too fast. How do you know that the man who +really made the marks took the spoons? It might have been a monkey that +took them, and the man may have merely looked in afterwards." You would +probably reply, "Well, that is all very well, but you see it is contrary +to all experience of the way tea-pots and spoons are abstracted; so +that, at any rate, your hypothesis is less probable than mine." While +you are talking the thing over in this way, another friend arrives, one +of the good kind of people that I was talking of a little while ago. And +he might say, "Oh, my dear sir, you are certainly going on a great +deal too fast. You are most presumptuous. You admit that all these +occurrences took place when you were fast asleep, at a time when you +could not possibly have known anything about what was taking place. How +do you know that the laws of Nature are not suspended during the night? +It may be that there has been some kind of supernatural interference in +this case." In point of fact, he declares that your hypothesis is one +of which you cannot at all demonstrate the truth, and that you are by no +means sure that the laws of Nature are the same when you are asleep as +when you are awake. + +Well, now, you cannot at the moment answer that kind of reasoning. You +feel that your worthy friend has you somewhat at a disadvantage. You +will feel perfectly convinced in your own mind, however, that you are +quite right, and you say to him, "My good friend, I can only be guided +by the natural probabilities of the case, and if you will be kind enough +to stand aside and permit me to pass, I will go and fetch the police." +Well, we will suppose that your journey is successful, and that by good +luck you meet with a policeman; that eventually the burglar is found +with your property on his person, and the marks correspond to his hand +and to his boots. Probably any jury would consider those facts a very +good experimental verification of your hypothesis, touching the cause +of the abnormal phenomena observed in your parlor, and would act +accordingly. + +Now, in this supposititious case, I have taken phenomena of a very +common kind, in order that you might see what are the different steps in +an ordinary process of reasoning, if you will only take the trouble to +analyse it carefully. All the operations I have described, you will +see, are involved in the mind of any man of sense in leading him to +a conclusion as to the course he should take in order to make good a +robbery and punish the offender. I say that you are led, in that case, +to your conclusion by exactly the same train of reasoning as that which +a man of science pursues when he is endeavouring to discover the origin +and laws of the most occult phenomena. The process is, and always must +be, the same; and precisely the same mode of reasoning was employed by +Newton [90] and Laplace [91] in their endeavours to discover and define +the causes of the movements of the heavenly bodies, as you, with your +own common sense, would employ to detect a burglar. The only difference +is, that the nature of the inquiry being more abstruse, every step has +to be most carefully watched, so that there may not be a single crack +or flaw in your hypothesis. A flaw or crack in many of the hypotheses +of daily life may be of little or no moment as affecting the general +correctness of the conclusions at which we may arrive; but, in a +scientific inquiry, a fallacy, great or small, is always of importance, +and is sure to be in the long run constantly productive of mischievous +if not fatal results. + +Do not allow yourselves to be misled by the common notion that an +hypothesis is untrustworthy simply because it is an hypothesis. It is +often urged, in respect to some scientific conclusion, that, after +all, it is only an hypothesis. But what more have we to guide us in +nine-tenths of the most important affairs of daily life than hypotheses, +and often very ill-based ones? So that in science, where the evidence of +an hypothesis is subjected to the most rigid examination, we may rightly +pursue the same course. You may have hypotheses, and hypotheses. A man +may say, if he likes, that the moon is made of green cheese: that is an +hypothesis. But another man, who has devoted a great deal of time and +attention to the subject, and availed himself of the most powerful +telescopes and the results of the observations of others, declares that +in his opinion it is probably composed of materials very similar to +those of which our own earth is made up: and that is also only an +hypothesis. But I need not tell you that there is an enormous difference +in the value of the two hypotheses. That one which is based on sound +scientific knowledge is sure to have a corresponding value; and that +which is a mere hasty random guess is likely to have but little value. +Every great step in our progress in discovering causes has been made +in exactly the same way as that which I have detailed to you. A person +observing the occurrence of certain facts and phenomena asks, naturally +enough, what process, what kind of operation known to occur in Nature +applied to the particular case, will unravel and explain the mystery? +Hence you have the scientific hypothesis; and its value will be +proportionate to the care and completeness with which its basis had been +tested and verified. It is in these matters as in the commonest affairs +of practical life: the guess of the fool will be folly, while the guess +of the wise man will contain wisdom. In all cases, you see that the +value of the result depends on the patience and faithfulness with +which the investigator applies to his hypothesis every possible kind of +verification. + + + + +ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE [92] + + +In order to make the title of this discourse generally intelligible, I +have translated the term "Protoplasm," which is the scientific name of +the substance of which I am about to speak, by the words "the physical +basis of life." I suppose that, to many, the idea that there is such a +thing as a physical basis, or matter, of life may be novel--so widely +spread is the conception of life as a something which works through +matter, but is independent of it; and even those who are aware that +matter and life are inseparably connected, may not be prepared for +the conclusion plainly suggested by the phrase, "THE physical basis or +matter of life," that there is some one kind of matter which is common +to all living beings, and that their endless diversities are bound +together by a physical, as well as an ideal, unity. In fact, when first +apprehended, such a doctrine as this appears almost shocking to common +sense. + +What, truly, can seem to be more obviously different from one another, +in faculty, in form, and in substance, than the various kinds of +living beings? What community of faculty can there be between the +bright-coloured lichen, which so nearly resembles a mere mineral +incrustation of the bare rock on which it grows, and the painter, to +whom it is instinct with beauty, or the botanist, whom it feeds with +knowledge? + +Again, think of the microscopic fungus--a mere infinitesimal ovoid +particle, which finds space and duration enough to multiply into +countless millions in the body of a living fly; and then of the wealth +of foliage, the luxuriance of flower and fruit, which lies between this +bald sketch of a plant and the giant pine of California, towering to the +dimensions of a cathedral spire, or the Indian fig, which covers acres +with its profound shadow, and endures while nations and empires come and +go around its vast circumference. Or, turning to the other half of the +world of life, picture to yourselves the great Finner whale,[93] hugest +of beasts that live, or have lived, disporting his eighty or ninety feet +of bone, muscle and blubber, with easy roll, among waves in which the +stoutest ship that ever left dockyard would flounder hopelessly; and +contrast him with the invisible animalcules--mere gelatinous specks, +multitudes of which could, in fact, dance upon the point of a needle +with the same ease as the angels of the Schoolmen could, in imagination. +With these images before your minds, you may well ask, what community +of form, or structure, is there between the animalcule and the whale; +or between the fungus and the fig-tree? And, a fortiori,[94] between all +four? + +Finally, if we regard substance, or material composition, what hidden +bond can connect the flower which a girl wears in her hair and the blood +which courses through her youthful veins; or, what is there in common +between the dense and resisting mass of the oak, or the strong fabric +of the tortoise, and those broad disks of glassy jelly which may be seen +pulsating through the waters of a calm sea, but which drain away to mere +films in the hand which raises them out of their element? + +Such objections as these must, I think, arise in the mind of every +one who ponders, for the first time, upon the conception of a single +physical basis of life underlying all the diversities of vital +existence; but I propose to demonstrate to you that, notwithstanding +these apparent difficulties, a threefold unity--namely, a unity of +power or faculty, a unity of form, and a unity of substantial +composition--does pervade the whole living world. + + +No very abstruse argumentation is needed, in the first place to prove +that the powers, or faculties, of all kinds of living matter, diverse as +they may be in degree, are substantially similar in kind. + +Goethe has condensed a survey of all powers of mankind into the +well-known epigram:--[95] + +"Warum treibt sich das Volk so und schreit? Es will sich ernahren Kinder +zeugen, und die nahren so gut es vermag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . +Weiter bringt es kein Mensch, stell' er sich wie er auch will." + + +In physiological language this means, that all the multifarious and +complicated activities of man are comprehensible under three categories. +Either they are immediately directed towards the maintenance and +development of the body, or they effect transitory changes in the +relative positions of parts of the body, or they tend towards the +continuance of the species. Even those manifestations of intellect, of +feeling, and of will, which we rightly name the higher faculties, are +not excluded from this classification, inasmuch as to every one but +the subject of them, they are known only as transitory changes in the +relative positions of parts of the body. Speech, gesture, and every +other form of human action are, in the long run, resolvable into +muscular contraction, and muscular contraction is but a transitory +change in the relative positions of the parts of a muscle. But the +scheme which is large enough to embrace the activities of the highest +form of life, covers all those of the lower creatures. The lowest plant, +or animalcule, feeds, grows, and reproduces its kind. In addition, all +animals manifest those transitory changes of form which we class under +irritability and contractility; and, it is more than probable, that when +the vegetable world is thoroughly explored, we shall find all plants in +possession of the same powers, at one time or other of their existence. + +I am not now alluding to such phaenomena, at once rare and conspicuous, +as those exhibited by the leaflets of the sensitive plants, or the +stamens of the barberry, but to much more widely spread, and at the same +time, more subtle and hidden, manifestations of vegetable contractility. +You are doubtless aware that the common nettle owes its stinging +property to the innumerable stiff and needle-like, though exquisitely +delicate, hairs which cover its surface. Each stinging-needle tapers +from a broad base to a slender summit, which, though rounded at the end, +is of such microscopic fineness that it readily penetrates, and breaks +off in, the skin. The whole hair consists of a very delicate outer case +of wood, closely applied to the inner surface of which is a layer of +semi-fluid matter, full of innumerable granules of extreme minuteness. +This semi-fluid lining is protoplasm, which thus constitutes a kind of +bag, full of a limpid liquid, and roughly corresponding in form with +the interior of the hair which it fills. When viewed with a sufficiently +high magnifying power, the protoplasmic layer of the nettle hair is seen +to be in a condition of unceasing activity. Local contractions of the +whole thickness of its substance pass slowly and gradually from point to +point, and give rise to the appearance of progressive waves, just as the +bending of successive stalks of corn by a breeze produces the apparent +billows of a cornfield. + +But, in addition to these movements, and independently of them, the +granules are driven, in relatively rapid streams, through channels in +the protoplasm which seem to have a considerable amount of persistence. +Most commonly, the currents in adjacent parts of the protoplasm take +similar directions; and, thus, there is a general stream up one side of +the hair and down the other. But this does not prevent the existence of +partial currents which take different routes; and sometimes trains of +granules may be seen coursing swiftly in opposite directions within +a twenty-thousandth of an inch of one another; while, occasionally, +opposite streams come into direct collision, and, after a longer or +shorter struggle, one predominates. The cause of these currents seems to +lie in contractions of the protoplasm which bounds the channels in which +they flow, but which are so minute that the best microscopes show only +their effects, and not themselves. + +The spectacle afforded by the wonderful energies prisoned within the +compass of the microscopic hair of a plant, which we commonly regard +as a merely passive organism, is not easily forgotten by one who has +watched its display, continued hour after hour, without pause or sign +of weakening. The possible complexity of many other organic forms, +seemingly as simple as the protoplasm of the nettle, dawns upon one; +and the comparison of such a protoplasm to a body with an internal +circulation, which has been put forward by an eminent physiologist, +loses much of its startling character. Currents similar to those of +the hairs of the nettle have been observed in a great multitude of +very different plants, and weighty authorities have suggested that +they probably occur, in more or less perfection, in all young vegetable +cells. If such be the case, the wonderful noonday silence of a tropical +forest is, after all, due only to the dulness of our hearing; and could +our ears catch the murmur of these tiny Maelstroms, [96] as they whirl +in the innumerable myriads of living cells which constitute each tree, +we should be stunned, as with the roar of a great city. + +Among the lower plants, it is the rule rather than the exception, that +contractility should be still more openly manifested at some periods of +their existence. The protoplasm of Algae and Fungi becomes, under many +circumstances, partially, or completely, freed from its woody case, +and exhibits movements of its whole mass, or is propelled by the +contractility of one, or more, hair-like prolongations of its body, +which are called vibratile cilia. And, so far as the conditions of the +manifestation of the phaenomena of contractility have yet been studied, +they are the same for the plant as for the animal. Heat and electric +shocks influence both, and in the same way, though it may be in +different degrees. It is by no means my intention to suggest that there +is no difference in faculty between the lowest plant and the highest, or +between plants and animals. But the difference between the powers of the +lowest plant, or animal, and those of the highest, is one of degree, +not of kind, and depends, as Milne-Edwards [97] long ago so well pointed +out, upon the extent to which the principle of the division of labour is +carried out in the living economy. In the lowest organism all parts +are competent to perform all functions, and one and the same portion of +protoplasm may successfully take on the function of feeding, moving, or +reproducing apparatus. In the highest, on the contrary, a great number +of parts combine to perform each function, each part doing its allotted +share of the work with great accuracy and efficiency, but being useless +for any other purpose. + +On the other hand, notwithstanding all the fundamental resemblances +which exist between the powers of the protoplasm in plants and in +animals, they present a striking difference (to which I shall advert +more at length presently), in the fact that plants can manufacture fresh +protoplasm out of mineral compounds, whereas animals are obliged to +procure it ready made, and hence, in the long run, depend upon plants. +Upon what condition this difference in the powers of the two great +divisions of the world of life depends, nothing is at present known. + +With such qualifications as arises [98] out of the last-mentioned +fact, it may be truly said that the acts of all living things are +fundamentally one. Is any such unity predicable of their forms? Let us +seek in easily verified facts for a reply to this question. If a drop +of blood be drawn by pricking one's finger, and viewed with proper +precautions, and under a sufficiently high microscopic power, there will +be seen, among the innumerable multitude of little, circular, discoidal +bodies, or corpuscles, which float in it and give it its colour, a +comparatively small number of colourless corpuscles, of somewhat larger +size and very irregular shape. If the drop of blood be kept at the +temperature of the body, these colourless corpuscles will be seen to +exhibit a marvellous activity, changing their forms with great rapidity, +drawing in and thrusting out prolongations of their substance, and +creeping about as if they were independent organisms. + +The substance which is thus active is a mass of protoplasm, and its +activity differs in detail, rather than in principle, from that of the +protoplasm of the nettle. Under sundry circumstances the corpuscle dies +and becomes distended into a round mass, in the midst of which is seen +a smaller spherical body, which existed, but was more or less hidden, +in the living corpuscle, and is called its nucleus. Corpuscles of +essentially similar structure are to be found in the skin, in the lining +of the mouth, and scattered through the whole framework of the body. +Nay, more; in the earliest condition of the human organism, in that +state in which it has but just become distinguishable from the egg in +which it arises, it is nothing but an aggregation of such corpuscles, +and every organ of the body was, once, no more than such an aggregation. + +Thus a nucleated mass of protoplasm turns out to be what may be termed +the structural unit of the human body. As a matter of fact, the body, in +its earliest state, is a mere multiple of such units; and in its perfect +condition, it is a multiple of such units, variously modified. + +But does the formula which expresses the essential structural character +of the highest animal cover all the rest, as the statement of its powers +and faculties covered that of all others? Very nearly. Beast and +fowl, reptile and fish, mollusk, worm, and polype, are all composed of +structural units of the same character, namely, masses of protoplasm +with a nucleus. There are sundry very low animals, each of which, +structurally, is a mere colourless blood-corpuscle, leading an +independent life. But, at the very bottom of the animal scale, even +this simplicity becomes simplified, and all the phaenomena of life are +manifested by a particle of protoplasm without a nucleus. Nor are such +organisms insignificant by reason of their want of complexity. It is a +fair question whether the protoplasm of those simplest forms of life, +which people an immense extent of the bottom of the sea, would not +outweigh that of all the higher living beings which inhabit the land put +together. And in ancient times, no less than at the present day, such +living beings as these have been the greatest of rock builders. + +What has been said of the animal world is no less true of plants. +Imbedded in the protoplasm at the broad, or attached, end of the nettle +hair, there lies a spheroidal nucleus. Careful examination further +proves that the whole substance of the nettle is made up of a repetition +of such masses of nucleated protoplasm, each contained in a wooden case, +which is modified in form, sometimes into a woody fibre, sometimes into +a duct or spiral vessel, sometimes into a pollen grain, or an ovule. +Traced back to its earliest state, the nettle arises as the man does, in +a particle of nucleated protoplasm. And in the lowest plants, as in +the lowest animals, a single mass of such protoplasm may constitute the +whole plant, or the protoplasm may exist without a nucleus. + +Under these circumstances it may well be asked, how is one mass of +non-nucleated protoplasm to be distinguished from another? why call one +"plant" and the other "animal"? + +The only reply is that, so far as form is concerned, plants and animals +are not separable, and that, in many cases, it is a mere matter of +convention whether we call a given organism an animal or a plant. There +is a living body called Aethalium septicum, which appears upon decaying +vegetable substances, and, in one of its forms, is common upon the +surfaces of tan-pits. In this condition it is, to all intents and +purposes, a fungus, and formerly was always regarded as such; but the +remarkable investigations of De Bary [99] have shown that, in another +condition, the Aethalium is an actively locomotive creature, and takes +in solid matters, upon which, apparently, it feeds, thus exhibiting the +most characteristic feature of animality. Is this a plant; or is it an +animal? Is it both; or is it neither? Some decide in favour of the last +supposition, and establish an intermediate kingdom, a sort of biological +No Man's Land [100] for all these questionable forms. But, as it is +admittedly impossible to draw any distinct boundary line between this +no man's land and the vegetable world on the one hand, or the animal, +on the other, it appears to me that this proceeding merely doubles the +difficulty which, before, was single. + +Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is +the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains +clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick +or sun-dried clod. + +Thus it becomes clear that all living powers are cognate, and that all +living forms are fundamentally of one character. The researches of +the chemist have revealed a no less striking uniformity of material +composition in living matter. + +In perfect strictness, it is true that chemical investigation can tell +us little or nothing, directly, of the composition of living matter, +inasmuch as such matter must needs die in the act of analysis,--and upon +this very obvious ground, objections, which I confess seem to me to be +somewhat frivolous, have been raised to the drawing of any conclusions +whatever respecting the composition of actually living matter, from +that of the dead matter of life, which alone is accessible to us. But +objectors of this class do not seem to reflect that it is also, in +strictness, true that we know nothing about the composition of any body +whatever, as it is. The statement that a crystal of calc-spar +consists of carbonate of lime, is quite true, if we only mean that, +by appropriate processes, it may be resolved into carbonic acid and +quicklime. If you pass the same carbonic acid over the very quicklime +thus obtained, you will obtain carbonate of lime again; but it will +not be calc-spar, nor anything like it. Can it, therefore, be said that +chemical analysis teaches nothing about the chemical composition of +calc-spar? Such a statement would be absurd; but it is hardly more so +than the talk one occasionally hears about the uselessness of applying +the results of chemical analysis to the living bodies which have yielded +them. + +One fact, at any rate, is out of reach of such refinements, and this is, +that all the forms of protoplasm which have yet been examined contain +the four elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, in very +complex union, and that they behave similarly towards several reagents. +To this complex combination, the nature of which has never been +determined with exactness, the name of Protein has been applied. And +if we use this term with such caution as may properly arise out of our +comparative ignorance of the things for which it stands, it may be +truly said, that all protoplasm is proteinaceous, or, as the white, or +albumen, of an egg is one of the commonest examples of a nearly pure +proteine matter, we may say that all living matter is more or less +albuminoid. + +Perhaps it would not yet be safe to say that all forms of protoplasm are +affected by the direct action of electric shocks; and yet the number of +cases in which the contraction of protoplasm is shown to be affected by +this agency increases every day. + +Nor can it be affirmed with perfect confidence, that all forms of +protoplasm are liable to undergo that peculiar coagulation at a +temperature of 40-50 degrees centigrade, which has been called +"heat-stiffening," though Kuhne's [101] beautiful researches have proved +this occurrence to take place in so many and such diverse living beings, +that it is hardly rash to expect that the law holds good for all. + + +Enough has, perhaps, been said to prove the existence of a general +uniformity in the character of the protoplasm, or physical basis, of +life, in whatever group of living beings it may be studied. But it will +be understood that this general uniformity by no means excludes any +amount of special modifications of the fundamental substance. The +mineral, carbonate of lime, assumes an immense diversity of characters, +though no one doubts that, under all these Protean changes, it is one +and the same thing. + +And now, what is the ultimate fate, and what the origin, of the matter +of life? + +Is it, as some of the older naturalists supposed, diffused throughout +the universe in molecules, which are indestructible and unchangeable +in themselves; but, in endless transmigration, unite in innumerable +permutations, into the diversified forms of life we know? Or, is the +matter of life composed of ordinary matter, differing from it only in +the manner in which its atoms are aggregated? Is it built up of ordinary +matter, and again resolved into ordinary matter when its work is done? + +Modern science does not hesitate a moment between these alternatives. +Physiology writes over the portals of life-- + +"Debemur morti nos nostraque,"[102] + +with a profounder meaning than the Roman poet attached to that +melancholy line. Under whatever disguise it takes refuge, whether fungus +or oak, worm or man, the living protoplasm not only ultimately dies and +is resolved into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is always +dying, and, strange as the paradox may sound, could not live unless it +died. + +In the wonderful story of the Peau de Chagrin,[103] the hero becomes +possessed of a magical wild ass' skin, which yields him the means of +gratifying all his wishes. But its surface represents the duration of +the proprietor's life; and for every satisfied desire the skin shrinks +in proportion to the intensity of fruition, until at length life and +the last handbreadth of the peau de chagrin, disappear with the +gratification of a last wish. + +Balzac's [104] studies had led him over a wide range of thought and +speculation, and his shadowing forth of physiological truth in this +strange story may have been intentional. At any rate, the matter of life +is a veritable peau de chagrin, and for every vital act it is somewhat +the smaller. All work implies waste, and the work of life results, +directly or indirectly, in the waste of protoplasm. + +Every word uttered by a speaker costs him some physical loss; and, +in the strictest sense, he burns that others may have light--so much +eloquence, so much of his body resolved into carbonic acid, water, and +urea. It is clear that this process of expenditure cannot go on for +ever. But, happily, the protoplasmic peau de chagrin differs from +Balzac's in its capacity of being repaired, and brought back to its full +size, after every exertion. + +For example, this present lecture, whatever its intellectual worth +to you, has a certain physical value to me, which is, conceivably, +expressible by the number of grains of protoplasm and other bodily +substance wasted in maintaining my vital processes during its delivery. +My peau de chagrin will be distinctly smaller at the end of the +discourse than it was at the beginning. By and by, I shall probably have +recourse to the substance commonly called mutton, for the purpose of +stretching it back to its original size. Now this mutton was once the +living protoplasm, more or less modified, of another animal--a sheep. As +I shall eat it, it is the same matter altered, not only by death, but by +exposure to sundry artificial operations in the process of cooking. + +But these changes, whatever be their extent, have not rendered it +incompetent to resume its old functions as matter of life. A singular +inward laboratory, which I possess, will dissolve a certain portion of +the modified protoplasm; the solution so formed will pass into my +veins; and the subtle influences to which it will then be subjected will +convert the dead protoplasm into living protoplasm, and transubstantiate +sheep into man. + +Nor is this all. If digestion were a thing to be trifled with, I might +sup upon lobster, and the matter of life of the crustacean would undergo +the same wonderful metamorphosis into humanity. And were I to return to +my own place by sea, and undergo shipwreck, the crustacean might, and +probably would, return the compliment, and demonstrate our common nature +by turning my protoplasm into living lobster. Or, if nothing better were +to be had, I might supply my wants with mere bread, and I should find +the protoplasm of the wheat-plant to be convertible into man, with no +more trouble than that of the sheep, and with far less, I fancy, than +that of the lobster. + +Hence it appears to be a matter of no great moment what animal, or what +plant, I lay under contribution for protoplasm, and the fact speaks +volumes for the general identity of that substance in all living beings. +I share this catholicity of assimilation with other animals, all of +which, so far as we know, could thrive equally well on the protoplasm of +any of their fellows, or of any plant; but here the assimilative powers +of the animal world cease. A solution of smelling-salts in water, with +an infinitesimal proportion of some other saline matters, contains all +the elementary bodies which enter into the composition of protoplasm; +but, as I need hardly say, a hogshead of that fluid would not keep a +hungry man from starving, nor would it save any animal whatever from a +like fate. An animal cannot make protoplasm, but must take it ready-made +from some other animal, or some plant--the animal's highest feat of +constructive chemistry being to convert dead protoplasm into that living +matter of life which is appropriate to itself. + +Therefore, in seeking for the origin of protoplasm, we must eventually +turn to the vegetable world. A fluid containing carbonic acid, water, +and nitrogenous salts, which offers such a Barmecide feast [105] to the +animal, is a table richly spread to multitudes of plants; and, with a +due supply of only such materials, many a plant will not only maintain +itself in vigour, but grow and multiply until it has increased a +million-fold, or a million million-fold, the quantity of protoplasm +which it originally possessed; in this way building up the matter of +life, to an indefinite extent, from the common matter of the universe. + +Thus, the animal can only raise the complex substance of dead protoplasm +to the higher power, as one may say, of living protoplasm; while the +plant can raise the less complex substances--carbonic acid, water, and +nitrogenous salts--to the same stage of living protoplasm, if not to the +same level. But the plant also has its limitations. Some of the fungi, +for example, appear to need higher compounds to start with; and no known +plant can live upon the uncompounded elements of protoplasm. A plant +supplied with pure carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, phosphorus, +sulphur, and the like, would as infallibly die as the animal in his bath +of smelling-salts, though it would be surrounded by all the constituents +of protoplasm. Nor, indeed, need the process of simplification of +vegetable food be carried so far as this, in order to arrive at the +limit of the plant's thaumaturgy. Let water, carbonic acid, and all the +other needful constituents be supplied except nitrogenous salts, and an +ordinary plant will still be unable to manufacture protoplasm. + +Thus the matter of life, so far as we know it (and we have no right to +speculate on any other), breaks up, in consequence of that continual +death which is the condition of its manifesting vitality, into carbonic +acid, water, and nitrogenous compounds, which certainly possess no +properties but those of ordinary matter. And out of these same forms of +ordinary matter, and from none which are simpler, the vegetable world +builds up all the protoplasm which keeps the animal world a-going. +Plants are the accumulators of the power which animals distribute and +disperse. + +But it will be observed, that the existence of the matter of life +depends on the pre-existence of certain compounds; namely, carbonic +acid, water, and certain nitrogenous bodies. Withdraw any one of these +three from the world, and all vital phaenomena come to an end. They are +as necessary to the protoplasm of the plant, as the protoplasm of the +plant is to that of the animal. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen +are all lifeless bodies. Of these, carbon and oxygen unite in certain +proportions and under certain conditions, to give rise to carbonic acid; +hydrogen and oxygen produce water; nitrogen and other elements give rise +to nitrogenous salts. These new compounds, like the elementary bodies +of which they are composed, are lifeless. But when they are brought +together, under certain conditions, they give rise to the still more +complex body, protoplasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the phaenomena of +life. + +I see no break in this series of steps in molecular complication, and I +am unable to understand why the language which is applicable to any one +term of the series may not be used to any of the others. We think fit to +call different kinds of matter carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, +and to speak of the various powers and activities of these substances as +the properties of the matter of which they are composed. + +When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in a certain proportion, and an +electric spark is passed through them, they disappear, and a quantity +of water, equal in weight to the sum of their weights, appears in their +place. There is not the slightest parity between the passive and active +powers of the water and those of the oxygen and hydrogen which +have given rise to it. At 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and far below that +temperature, oxygen and hydrogen are elastic gaseous bodies, whose +particles tend to rush away from one another with great force. Water, at +the same temperature, is a strong though brittle solid whose particles +tend to cohere into definite geometrical shapes, and sometimes build up +frosty imitations of the most complex forms of vegetable foliage. + +Nevertheless we call these, and many other strange phaenomena, the +properties of the water, and we do not hesitate to believe that, in +some way or another, they result from the properties of the component +elements of the water. We do not assume that a something called +"aquosity" entered into and took possession of the oxidated hydrogen as +soon as it was formed, and then guided the aqueous particles to their +places in the facets of the crystal, or amongst the leaflets of the +hoar-frost. On the contrary, we live in the hope and in the faith that, +by the advance of molecular physics, we shall by and by be able to see +our way as clearly from the constituents of water to the properties of +water, as we are now able to deduce the operations of a watch from the +form of its parts and the manner in which they are put together. + +Is the case in any way changed when carbonic acid, water, and +nitrogenous salts disappear, and in their place, under the influence of +pre-existing living protoplasm, an equivalent weight of the matter of +life makes its appearance? + +It is true that there is no sort of parity between the properties of the +components and the properties of the resultant, but neither was there in +the case of the water. It is also true that what I have spoken of as +the influence of pre-existing living matter is something quite +unintelligible; but does anybody quite comprehend the modus operandi +[106] of an electric spark, which traverses a mixture of oxygen and +hydrogen? + +What justification is there, then, for the assumption of the existence +in the living matter of a something which has no representative, or +correlative, in the not living matter which gave rise to it? What better +philosophical status has "vitality" than "aquosity"? And why should +"vitality" hope for a better fate than the other "itys" which have +disappeared since Martinus Scriblerus [107] accounted for the operation +of the meat-jack [108] by its inherent "meat-roasting quality," and +scorned the "materialism" of those who explained the turning of the spit +by a certain mechanism worked by the draught of the chimney. + +If scientific language is to possess a definite and constant +signification whenever it is employed, it seems to me that we are +logically bound to apply to the protoplasm, or physical basis of life, +the same conceptions as those which are held to be legitimate elsewhere. +If the phaenomena exhibited by water are its properties, so are those +presented by protoplasm, living or dead, its properties. + +If the properties of water may be properly said to result from the +nature and disposition of its component molecules, I can find no +intelligible ground for refusing to say that the properties of +protoplasm result from the nature and disposition of its molecules. + +But I bid you beware that, in accepting these conclusions, you are +placing your feet on the first rung of a ladder which, in most people's +estimation, is the reverse of Jacob's, and leads to the antipodes of +heaven. It may seem a small thing to admit that the dull vital actions +of a fungus, or a foraminifer, are the properties of their protoplasm, +and are the direct results of the nature of the matter of which they +are composed. But if, as I have endeavoured to prove to you, their +protoplasm is essentially identical with, and most readily converted +into, that of any animal, I can discover no logical halting-place +between the admission that such is the case, and the further concession +that all vital action may, with equal propriety, be said to be the +result of the molecular forces of the protoplasm which displays it. And +if so, it must be true, in the same sense and to the same extent, that +the thoughts to which I am now giving utterance, and your thoughts +regarding them, are the expression of molecular changes in that matter +of life which is the source of our other vital phaenomena.[109] + + + + +ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS [110] + + +The marine productions which are commonly known by the names of "Corals" +and "Corallines," were thought by the ancients to be sea-weeds, which +had the singular property of becoming hard and solid, when they were +fished up from their native depths and came into contact with the air. + + +"Sic et curalium, quo primum contigit auras Tempore durescit: mollis +fuit herba sub undis,"[111] + + +says Ovid (Metam. xv); and it was not until the seventeenth century that +Boccone [112] was emboldened, by personal experience of the facts, to +declare that the holders of this belief were no better than "idiots," +who had been misled by the softness of the outer coat of the living red +coral to imagine that it was soft all through. + +Messer Boccone's strong epithet is probably undeserved, as the notion he +controverts, in all likelihood, arose merely from the misinterpretation +of the strictly true statement which any coral fisherman would make to +a curious inquirer; namely, that the outside coat of the red coral is +quite soft when it is taken out of the sea. At any rate, he did good +service by eliminating this much error from the current notions about +coral. But the belief that corals are plants remained, not only in the +popular, but in the scientific mind; and it received what appeared to be +a striking confirmation from the researches of Marsigli [113] in 1706. +For this naturalist, having the opportunity of observing freshly-taken +red coral, saw that its branches were beset with what looked like +delicate and beautiful flowers each having eight petals. It was true +that these "flowers" could protrude and retract themselves, but their +motions were hardly more extensive, or more varied, than those of the +leaves of the sensitive plant; and therefore they could not be held to +militate against the conclusion so strongly suggested by their form and +their grouping upon the branches of a tree-like structure. + +Twenty years later, a pupil of Marsigli, the young Marseilles physician, +Peyssonel, conceived the desire to study these singular sea-plants, and +was sent by the French Government on a mission to the Mediterranean for +that purpose. The pupil undertook the investigation full of confidence +in the ideas of his master, but being able to see and think for himself, +he soon discovered that those ideas by no means altogether corresponded +with reality. In an essay entitled "Traite du Corail," which was +communicated to the French Academy of Science, but which has never been +published, Peyssonel writes:-- + +"Je fis fleurir le corail dans des vases pleins d'eau de mer, et +j'observai que ce que nous croyons etre la fleur de cette pretendue +plante n'etait au vrai, qu'un insecte semblable a une petite Ortie ou +Poulpe. J'avais le plaisir de voir remuer les pattes, ou pieds, de cette +Ortie, et ayant mis le vase plein d'eau ou le corail etait a une douce +chaleur aupres du feu, tous les petits insectes s'epanouirent.--L'Ortie +sortie etend les pieds, et forme ce que M. de Marsigli et moi avions +pris pour les petales de la fleur. Le calice de cette pretendue fleur +est le corps meme de l'animal avance et sorti hors de la cellule."*[114] + + * This extract from Peyssonel's manuscript is given by M. + Lacaze Duthiers in his valuable Histoire Naturelle du Corail + (1866). + +The comparison of the flowers of the coral to a "petite ortie," or +"little nettle," is perfectly just, but needs explanation. "Ortie de +mer," or "sea-nettle," is, in fact, the French appellation for our +"sea-anemone," a creature with which everybody, since the great aquarium +mania, must have become familiar, even to the limits of boredom. In +1710, the great naturalist, Reaumur,[115] had written a memoir for the +express purpose of demonstrating that these "orties" are animals; and +with this important paper Peyssonel must necessarily have been familiar. +Therefore, when he declared the "flowers" of the red coral to be little +"orties," it was the same thing as saying that they were animals of the +same general nature as sea-anemones. But to Peyssonel's contemporaries +this was an extremely startling announcement. It was hard to imagine the +existence of such a thing as an association of animals into a structure +with stem and branches altogether like a plant, and fixed to the soil +as a plant is fixed; and the naturalists of that day preferred not to +imagine it. Even Reaumur could not bring himself to accept the notion, +and France being blessed with Academicians, whose great function (as the +late Bishop Wilson [116] and an eminent modern writer [117] have so well +shown) is to cause sweetness and light to prevail, and to prevent such +unmannerly fellows as Peyssonel from blurting out unedifying truths, +they suppressed him; and, as aforesaid, his great work remained in +manuscript, and may at this day be consulted by the curious in that +state, in the Bibliotheque du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Peyssonel, +who evidently was a person of savage and untameable disposition, so far +from appreciating the kindness of the Academicians in giving him time to +reflect upon the unreasonableness, not to say rudeness, of making public +statements in opposition to the views of some of the most distinguished +of their body, seems bitterly to have resented the treatment he met +with. For he sent all further communications to the Royal Society of +London, which never had, and it is to be hoped never will have, +anything of an academic constitution; and finally he took himself off to +Guadaloupe, and became lost to science altogether. + +Fifteen or sixteen years after the date of Peyssonel's suppressed paper, +the Abbe Trembley [118] published his wonderful researches upon the +fresh-water Hydra. Bernard de Jussieu [119] and Guettard [120] followed +them up by like inquiries upon the marine sea-anemones and corallines; +Reaumur, convinced against his will of the entire justice of Peyssonel's +views, adopted them, and made him a half-and-half apology in the preface +to the next published volume of the "Memoires pour servir l'Histoire des +Insectes;" and, from this time forth, Peyssonel's doctrine that +corals are the work of animal organisms has been part of the body of +established scientific truth. + +Peyssonel, in the extract from his memoir already cited, compares the +flower-like animal of the coral to a "poulpe," which is the French +form of the name "polypus,"--"the many-footed,"--which the ancient +naturalists gave to the soft-bodied cuttlefishes, which, like the coral +animal, have eight arms, or tentacles, disposed around a central mouth. +Reaumur, admitting the analogy indicated by Peyssonel, gave the name +of polypes, not only to the sea-anemone, the coral animal, and the +fresh-water Hydra, but to what are now known as the Polyzoa, and he +termed the skeleton which they fabricate a "polypier," or "polypidom." + +The progress of discovery, since Reaumur's time, has made us very +completely acquainted with the structure and habits of all these +polypes. We know that, among the sea-anemones and coral-forming animals, +each poylpe has a mouth leading to a stomach, which is open at its inner +end, and thus communicates freely with the general cavity of the body; +that the tentacles placed round the mouth are hollow, and that they +perform the part of arms in seizing and capturing prey. It is known that +many of these creatures are capable of being multiplied by artificial +division, the divided halves growing, after a time, into complete and +separate animals; and that many are able to perform a very similar +process naturally, in such a manner that one polype may, by repeated +incomplete divisions, give rise to a sort of sheet, or turf, formed by +innumerable connected, and yet independent, descendants. Or, what is +still more common, a polype may throw out buds, which are converted into +polypes, or branches bearing polypes, until a tree-like mass, sometimes +of very considerable size, is formed. + +This is what happens in the case of the red coral of commerce. A minute +polype, fixed to the rocky bottom of the deep sea, grows up into a +branched trunk. The end of every branch and twig is terminated by +a polype; and all the polypes are connected together by a fleshy +substance, traversed by innumerable canals which place each polype in +communication with every other, and carry nourishment to the substance +of the supporting stem. It is a sort of natural cooperative store, +every polype helping the whole, at the same time as it helps itself. The +interior of the stem, like that of the branches, is solidified by the +deposition of carbonate of lime in its tissue, somewhat in the same +fashion as our own bones are formed of animal matter impregnated with +lime salts; and it is this dense skeleton (usually turned red by a +peculiar colouring matter) cleared of the soft animal investment, as +the hard wood of a tree might be stripped of its bark, which is the red +coral. + +In the case of the red coral, the hard skeleton belongs to the interior +of the stem and branches only; but in the commoner white corals, each +polype has a complete skeleton of its own. These polypes are sometimes +solitary, in which case the whole skeleton is represented by a single +cup, with partitions radiating from its centre to its circumference. +When the polypes formed by budding or division remain associated, the +polypidom is sometimes made up of nothing but an aggregation of these +cups, while at other times the cups are at once separated and held +together, by an intermediate substance, which represents the branches +of the red coral. The red coral polype again is a comparatively rare +animal, inhabiting a limited area, the skeleton of which has but a very +insignificant mass; while the white corals are very common, occur +in almost all seas, and form skeletons which are sometimes extremely +massive. + +With a very few exceptions, both the red and the white coral polypes +are, in their adult state, firmly adherent to the sea-bottom; nor do +their buds naturally become detached and locomotive. But, in addition to +budding and division, these creatures possess the more ordinary methods +of multiplication; and, at particular seasons, they give rise to +numerous eggs of minute size. Within these eggs the young are formed, +and they leave the egg in a condition which has no sort of resemblance +to the perfect animal. It is, in fact, a minute oval body, many hundred +times smaller than the full grown creature, and it swims about with +great activity by the help of multitudes of little hair-like filaments, +called cilia, with which its body is covered. These cilia all lash the +water in one direction, and so drive the little body along as if it were +propelled by thousands of extremely minute paddles. After enjoying its +freedom for a longer or shorter time, and being carried either by the +force of its own cilia, or by currents which bear it along, the embryo +coral settles down to the bottom, loses its cilia, and becomes fixed to +the rock, gradually assuming the polype form and growing up to the size +of its parent. As the infant polypes of the coral may retain this free +and active condition for many hours, or even days, and as a tidal or +other current in the sea may easily flow at the speed of two or even +more miles in an hour, it is clear that the embryo must often be +transported to very considerable distances from the parent. And it is +easily understood how a single polype, which may give rise to hundreds, +or perhaps thousands, of embryos, may, by this process of partly +active and partly passive migration, cover an immense surface with its +offspring. + +The masses of coral which may be formed by the assemblages of polypes +which spring by budding, or by dividing, from a single polype, +occasionally attain very considerable dimensions. Such skeletons are +sometimes great plates, many feet long and several feet in thickness; or +they may form huge half globes, like the brainstone corals, or may reach +the magnitude of stout shrubs or even small trees. There is reason to +believe that such masses as these take a long time to form, and +hence that the age a polype tree, or polype turf, may attain, may be +considerable. But, sooner or later, the coral polypes, like all other +things, die; the soft flesh decays, while the skeleton is left as a +stony mass at the bottom of the sea, where it retains its integrity for +a longer or a shorter time, according as its position affords more or +less protection from the wear and tear of the waves. + +The polypes which give rise to the white coral are found, as has been +said, in the seas of all parts of the world; but in the temperate and +cold oceans they are scattered and comparatively small in size, so that +the skeletons of those which die do not accumulate in any considerable +quantity. But it is otherwise in the greater part of the ocean which +lies in the warmer parts of the world, comprised within a distance of +about eighteen hundred miles on each side of the equator. Within the +zone thus bounded, by far the greater part of the ocean is inhabited by +coral polypes, which not only form very strong and large skeletons, but +associate together into great masses, like the thickets and the meadow +turf, or, better still, the accumulations of peat, to which plants give +rise on dry land. These masses of stony matter, heaped up beneath the +waters of the ocean, become as dangerous to mariners as so much ordinary +rock, and to these, as to the common rock ridges, the seaman gives the +name of "reefs." + +Such coral reefs cover many thousand square miles in the Pacific and in +the Indian Oceans. There is one reef, or rather great series of reefs, +called the Barrier Reef, which stretches, almost continuously, for more +than eleven hundred miles off the east coast of Australia. Multitudes +of the islands in the Pacific are either reefs themselves, or are +surrounded by reefs. The Red Sea is in many parts almost a maze of such +reefs, and they abound no less in the West Indies, along the coast of +Florida, and even as far north as the Bahama Islands. But it is a very +remarkable circumstance that, within the area of what we may call the +"coral zone," there are no coral reefs upon the west coast of America, +nor upon the west coast of Africa; and it is a general fact that the +reefs are interrupted, or absent, opposite the mouths of great rivers. +The causes of this apparent caprice in the distribution of coral reefs +are not far to seek. The polypes which fabricate them require for their +vigorous growth a temperature which must not fall below 68 degrees +Fahrenheit all the year round, and this temperature is only to be +found within the distance on each side of the equator which has been +mentioned, or thereabouts. But even within the coral zone this degree of +warmth is not everywhere to be had. On the west coast of America, and on +the corresponding coast of Africa, the currents of cold water from the +icy regions which surround the South Pole set northward, and it appears +to be due to their cooling influence that the sea in these regions is +free from the reef builders. Again, the coral polypes cannot live in +water which is rendered brackish by floods from the land, or which is +perturbed by mud from the same source, and hence it is that they cease +to exist opposite the mouths of rivers, which damage them in both these +ways. + +Such is the general distribution of the reef-building corals, but there +are some very interesting and singular circumstances to be observed in +the conformation of the reefs, when we consider them individually. The +reefs, in fact, are of three different kinds; some of them stretch out +from the shore, almost like a prolongation of the beach, covered only +by shallow water, and in the case of an island, surrounding it like a +fringe of no considerable breadth. These are termed "fringing reefs." +Others are separated by a channel which may attain a width of many +miles, and a depth of twenty or thirty fathoms or more, from the nearest +land; and when this land is an island, the reef surrounds it like a low +wall, and the sea between the reef and the land is, as it were, a moat +inside this wall. Such reefs as these are called "encircling" when they +surround an island; and "barrier" reefs, when they stretch parallel with +the coast of a continent. In both these cases there is ordinary dry land +inside the reef, and separated from it only by a narrower or a wider, +a shallower or a deeper, space of sea, which is called a "lagoon," +or "inner passage." But there is a third kind of reef, of very common +occurrence in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which goes by the name +of "atoll." This is, to all intents and purposes, an encircling reef, +without anything to encircle; or, in other words, without an island +in the middle of its lagoon. The atoll has exactly the appearance of a +vast, irregularly oval, or circular, breakwater, enclosing smooth water +in its midst. The depth of the water in the lagoon rarely exceeds twenty +or thirty fathoms, but, outside the reef, it deepens with great rapidity +to two hundred or three hundred fathoms. The depth immediately outside +the barrier, or encircling, reefs, may also be very considerable; but, +at the outer edge of a fringing reef, it does not amount usually to more +than twenty or twenty-five fathoms; in other words, from one hundred and +twenty to one hundred and fifty feet. + +Thus, if the water of the ocean should be suddenly drained away, we +should see the atolls rising from the sea-bed like vast truncated cones, +and resembling so many volcanic craters, except that their sides +would be steeper than those of an ordinary volcano. In the case of the +encircling reefs, the cone, with the enclosed island, would look like +Vesuvius with Monte Nuovo within the old crater of Somma;[121] while, +finally, the island with a fringing reef would have the appearance of an +ordinary hill, or mountain, girded by a vast parapet, within which would +lie a shallow moat. And the dry bed of the Pacific might afford grounds +for an inhabitant of the moon to speculate upon the extraordinary +subterranean activity to which these vast and numerous "craters" bore +witness! + +When the structure of a fringing reef is investigated, the bottom of the +lagoon is found to be covered with fine whitish mud, which results from +the breaking up of the dead corals. Upon this muddy floor there lie, +here and there, growing corals, or occasionally great blocks of dead +coral, which have been torn by storms from the outer edge of the reef, +and washed into the lagoon. Shellfish and worms of various kinds abound; +and fish, some of which prey upon the coral, sport in the deeper pools. +But the corals which are to be seen growing in the shallow waters of the +lagoon are of a different kind from those which abound on the outer edge +of the reef, and of which the reef is built up. Close to the seaward +edge of the reef, over which, even in calm weather, a surf almost always +breaks, the coral rock is encrusted with a thick coat of a singular +vegetable organism, which contains a great deal of lime--the so-called +Nullipora. Beyond this, in the part of the edge of the reef which is +always covered by the breaking waves, the living, true, reef-polypes +make their appearance; and, in different forms, coat the steep seaward +face of the reef to a depth of one hundred or even one hundred and fifty +feet. Beyond this depth the sounding-lead rests, not upon the wall-like +face of the reef, but on the ordinary shelving sea-bottom. And the +distance to which a fringing reef extends from the land corresponds with +that at which the sea has a depth of twenty or five-and-twenty fathoms. + +If, as we have supposed, the sea could be suddenly withdrawn from around +an island provided with a fringing reef, such as the Mauritius,[122] +the reef would present the aspect of a terrace, its seaward face, one +hundred feet or more high, blooming with the animal flowers of the +coral, while its surface would be hollowed out into a shallow and +irregular moat-like excavation. + +The coral mud, which occupies the bottom of the lagoon, and with which +all the interstices of the coral skeletons which accumulate to form +the reef are filled up, does not proceed from the washing action of the +waves alone; innumerable fishes, and other creatures which prey upon the +coral, add a very important contribution of finely-triturated calcareous +matter; and the corals and mud becoming incorporated together, gradually +harden and give rise to a sort of limestone rock, which may vary a good +deal in texture. Sometimes it remains friable and chalky, but, more +often, the infiltration of water, charged with carbonic acid, dissolves +some of the calcareous matter, and deposits it elsewhere in the +interstices of the nascent rock, thus glueing and cementing the +particles together into a hard mass; or it may even dissolve the +carbonate of lime more extensively, and re-deposit it in a crystalline +form. On the beach of the lagoon, where the coral sand is washed into +layers by the action of the waves, its grains become thus fused together +into strata of a limestone, so hard that they ring when struck with a +hammer, and inclined at a gentle angle, corresponding with that of the +surface of the beach. The hard parts of the many animals which live upon +the reef become imbedded in this coral limestone, so that a block may +be full of shells of bivalves and univalves, or of sea urchins; and even +sometimes encloses the eggs of turtles in a state of petrification. +The active and vigorous growth of the reef goes on only at the seaward +margins, where the polypes are exposed to the wash of the surf, and +are thereby provided with an abundant supply of air and of food. +The interior portion of the reef may be regarded as almost wholly an +accumulation of dead skeletons. Where a river comes down from the land +there is a break in the reef, for the reasons which have been already +mentioned. + +The origin and mode of formation of a fringing reef, such as that just +described, are plain enough. The embryos of the coral polypes have fixed +themselves upon the submerged shore of the island, as far out as they +could live, namely, to a depth of twenty or twenty-five fathoms. One +generation has succeeded another, building itself up upon the dead +skeletons of its predecessor. The mass has been consolidated by +the infiltration of coral mud, and hardened by partial solution and +redeposition, until a great rampart of coral rock one hundred or one +hundred and fifty feet high on its seaward face has been formed all +round the island, with only such gaps as result from the outflow of +rivers, in the place of sally-ports. + +The structure of the rocky accumulation in the encircling reefs and +in the atolls is essentially the same as in the fringing reef. But, in +addition to the differences of depth inside and out, they present some +other peculiarities. These reefs, and especially the atolls, are usually +interrupted at one part of their circumference, and this part is always +situated on the leeward side of the reef, or that which is the more +sheltered side. Now, as all these reefs are situated within the region +in which the tradewinds prevail, it follows that, on the north side of +the equator, where the trade-wind is a northeasterly wind, the opening +of the reef is on the southwest side: while in the southern hemisphere, +where the trade-winds blow from the southeast, the opening lies to the +northwest. The curious practical result follows from this structure, +that the lagoons to these reefs really form admirable harbours, if +a ship can only get inside them. But the main difference between the +encircling reefs and the atolls, on the one hand, and the fringing reefs +on the other, lies in the fact of the much greater depth of water on the +seaward faces of the former. As a consequence of this fact, the whole +of this face is not, as it is in the case of the fringing reef, covered +with living coral polypes. For, as we have seen, these polypes cannot +live at a greater depth than about twenty-five fathoms; and actual +observation has shown that while, down to this depth, the sounding-lead +will bring up branches of live coral from the outer wall of such a reef, +at a greater depth it fetches to the surface nothing but dead coral and +coral sand. We must, therefore, picture to ourselves an atoll, or an +encircling reef, as fringed for one hundred feet, or more, from its +summit, with coral polypes busily engaged in fabricating coral; while, +below this comparatively narrow belt, its surface is a bare and smooth +expanse of coral sand, supported upon and within a core of coral +limestone. Thus, if the bed of the Pacific were suddenly laid bare, as +was just now supposed, the appearance of the reef-mountains would be +exactly the reverse of that presented by many high mountains on land. +For these are white with snow at the top, while their bases are clothed +with an abundant and gaudily-coloured vegetation. But the coral cones +would look grey and barren below, while their summits would be gay with +a richly-coloured parterre of flowerlike coral polypes. + +The practical difficulties of sounding upon, and of bringing up portions +of, the seaward face of an atoll or of an encircling reef, are so great, +in consequence of the constant and dangerous swell which sets towards +it, that no exact information concerning the depth to which the reefs +are composed of coral has yet been obtained. There is no reason to +doubt, however, that the reef-cone has the same structure from its +summit to its base, and that its sea-wall is throughout mainly composed +of dead coral. + +And now arises a serious difficulty. If the coral polypes cannot live at +a greater depth than one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet, how can +they have built up the base of the reef-cone, which may be two thousand +feet, or more, below the surface of the sea? + +In order to get over this objection, it was at one time supposed that +the reef-building polypes had settled upon the summits of a chain of +submarine mountains. But what is there in physical geography to justify +the assumption of the existence of a chain of mountains stretching for +one thousand miles or more, and so nearly of the same height, that none +should rise above the level of the sea, nor fall one hundred and fifty +feet below that level? + +How, again, on this hypothesis, are atolls to be accounted for, unless, +as some have done, we take refuge in the wild supposition that every +atoll corresponds with the crater of a submarine volcano? And what +explanation does it afford of the fact that, in some parts of the ocean, +only atolls and encircling reefs occur, while others present none but +fringing reefs? + +These and other puzzling facts remained insoluble until the publication, +in the year 1840, of Mr. Darwin's famous work on coral reefs;[123] in +which a key was given to all the difficult problems connected with the +subject, and every difficulty was shown to be capable of solution by +deductive reasoning from a happy combination of certain well-established +geological and biological truths. Mr. Darwin, in fact, showed that, +so long as the level of the sea remains unaltered in any area in which +coral reefs are being formed, or if the level of the sea relatively +to that of the land is falling, the only reefs which can be formed +are fringing reefs. While if, on the contrary, the level of the sea is +rising relatively to that of the land, at a rate not faster than that +at which the upward growth of the coral can keep pace with it, the reef +will gradually pass from the condition of a fringing, into that of an +encircling or barrier reef. And, finally, that if the relative level of +the sea rise so much that the encircled land is completely submerged, +the reef must necessarily pass into the condition of an atoll. + +For, suppose the relative level of the sea to remain stationary, after a +fringing reef has reached that distance from the land at which the depth +of water amounts to one hundred and fifty feet. Then the reef cannot +extend seaward by the migration of coral germs, because these coral +germs would find the bottom of the sea to be too deep for them to live +in. And the only manner in which the reef could extend outwards, would +be by the gradual accumulation, at the foot of its seaward face, of a +talus of coral fragments torn off by the violence of the waves, which +talus might, in course of time, become high enough to bring its upper +surface within the limits of coral growth, and in that manner provide a +sort of factitious sea-bottom upon which the coral embryos might perch. +If, on the other hand, the level of the sea were slowly and gradually +lowered, it is clear that the parts of its bottom originally beyond the +limit of coral growth would gradually be brought within the required +distance of the surface, and thus the reef might be indefinitely +extended. But this process would give rise neither to an encircling reef +nor to an atoll, but to a broad belt of upheaved coral rock, increasing +the dimensions of the dry land, and continuous seawards with the fresh +fringing reef. + +Suppose, however, that the sea-level rose instead of falling, at the +same slow and gradual rate at which we know it to be rising in some +parts of the world,--not more, in fact, than a few inches, or, at most, +a foot or two, in a hundred years. Then, while the reef would be unable +to extend itself seaward, the sea-bottom outside it being gradually more +and more removed from the depth at which the life of the coral polypes +is possible, it would be able to grow upwards as fast as the sea +rose. But the growth would take place almost exclusively around the +circumference of the reef, this being the only region in which the coral +polypes would find the conditions favourable for their existence. The +bottom of the lagoon would be raised, in the main, only by the +coral debris and coral mud, formed in the manner already described; +consequently, the margins of the reef would rise faster than the bottom, +or, in other words, the lagoon would constantly become deeper. And, at +the same time, it would gradually increase in breadth; as the rising +sea, covering more of the land, would occupy a wider space between the +edge of the reef and what remained of the land. Thus the rising sea +would eventually convert a large island with a fringing reef into a +small island surrounded by an encircling reef. And it will be obvious +that when the rising of the sea has gone so far as completely to cover +the highest points of the island, the reef will have passed into the +condition of an atoll. + +But how is it possible that the relative level of the land and sea +should be altered to this extent? Clearly, only in one of two ways: +either the sea must have risen over those areas which are now covered by +atolls and encircling reefs; or, the land upon which the sea rests must +have been depressed to a corresponding extent. + +If the sea has risen, its rise must have taken place over the whole +world simultaneously, and it must have risen to the same height over all +parts of the coral zone. Grounds have been shown for the belief that the +general level of the sea may have been different at different times; it +has been suggested, for example, that the accumulation of ice about the +poles during one of the cold periods of the earth's history necessarily +implies a diminution in the volume of the sea proportioned to the amount +of its water thus permanently locked up in the Arctic and Antarctic +ice-cellars; while, in the warm periods, the greater or less +disappearance of the polar ice-cap implies a corresponding addition of +water to the ocean. And no doubt this reasoning must be admitted to be +sound in principle; though it is very hard to say what practical effect +the additions and subtractions thus made have had on the level of the +ocean; inasmuch as such additions and subtractions might be either +intensified or nullified, by contemporaneous changes in the level of the +land. And no one has yet shown that any such great melting of polar ice, +and consequent raising of the level of the water of the ocean, has taken +place since the existing atolls began to be formed. + +In the absence of any evidence that the sea has ever risen to the extent +required to give rise to the encircling reefs and the atolls, Mr. Darwin +adopted the opposite hypothesis, viz., that the land has undergone +extensive and slow depression in those localities in which these +structures exist. + +It seems, at first, a startling paradox, to suppose that the land +is less fixed than the sea; but that such is the case is the uniform +testimony of geology. Beds of sandstone or limestone, thousands of feet +thick, and all full of marine remains, occur in various parts of the +earth's surface, and prove, beyond a doubt, that when these beds +were formed, that portion of the sea-bottom which they then occupied +underwent a slow and gradual depression to a distance which cannot have +been less than the thickness of those beds, and may have been very much +greater. In supposing, therefore, that the great areas of the Pacific +and of the Indian Ocean, over which atolls and encircling reefs are +found scattered, have undergone a depression of some hundreds, or, +it may be, thousands of feet, Mr. Darwin made a supposition which had +nothing forced or improbable, but was entirely in accordance with what +we know to have taken place over similarly extensive areas, in other +periods of the world's history. But Mr. Darwin subjected his hypothesis +to an ingenious indirect test. If his view be correct, it is clear that +neither atolls, nor encircling reefs, should be found in those portions +of the ocean in which we have reason to believe, on independent grounds, +that the sea-bottom has long been either stationary, or slowly rising. +Now it is known that, as a general rule, the level of the land is either +stationary, or is undergoing a slow upheaval, in the neighborhood of +active volcanoes; and, therefore, neither atolls nor encircling reefs +ought to be found in regions in which volcanoes are numerous and active. +And this turns out to be the case. Appended to Mr. Darwin's great work +on coral reefs, there is a map on which atolls and encircling reefs are +indicated by one colour, fringing reefs by another, and active volcanoes +by a third. And it is at once obvious that the lines of active volcanoes +lie around the margins of the areas occupied by the atolls and the +encircling reefs. It is exactly as if the upheaving volcanic agencies +had lifted up the edges of these great areas, while their centres had +undergone a corresponding depression. An atoll area may, in short, be +pictured as a kind of basin, the margins of which have been pushed up by +the subterranean forces, to which the craters of the volcanoes have, at +intervals, given vent. + +Thus we must imagine the area of the Pacific now covered by the +Polynesian Archipelago, as having been, at some former time, occupied +by large islands, or, may be, by a great continent, with the ordinarily +diversified surface of plain, and hill, and mountain chain. The shores +of this great land were doubtless fringed by coral reefs; and, as it +slowly underwent depression, the hilly regions, converted into islands, +became, at first, surrounded by fringing reefs, and then, as depression +went on, these became converted into encircling reefs, and these, +finally, into atolls, until a maze of reefs and coral-girdled islets +took the place of the original land masses. + +Thus the atolls and the encircling reefs furnish us with clear, though +indirect, evidence of changes in the physical geography of large parts +of the earth's surface; and even, as my lamented friend, the late +Professor Jukes,[124] has suggested, give us indications of the manner +in which some of the most puzzling facts connected with the distribution +of animals have been brought about. For example, Australia and New +Guinea are separated by Torres Straits, a broad belt of sea one hundred +or one hundred and twenty miles wide. Nevertheless, there is in many +respects a curious resemblance between the land animals which inhabit +New Guinea and the land animals which inhabit Australia. But, at the +same time, the marine shellfish which are found in the shallow waters +of the shores of New Guinea are quite different from those which are +met with upon the coasts of Australia. Now, the eastern end of Torres +Straits is full of atolls, which, in fact, form the northern termination +of the Great Barrier Reef which skirts the eastern coast of Australia. +It follows, therefore, that the eastern end of Torres Straits is an +area of depression, and it is very possible, and on many grounds highly +probable, that, in former times, Australia and New Guinea were directly +connected together, and that Torres Straits did not exist. If this were +the case, the existence of cassowaries and of marsupial quadrupeds, +both in New Guinea and in Australia, becomes intelligible; while the +difference between the littoral molluscs of the north and the south +shores of Torres Straits is readily explained by the great probability +that, when the depression in question took place, and what was, at +first, an arm of the sea became converted into a strait separating +Australia from New Guinea, the northern shore of this new sea became +tenanted with marine animals from the north, while the southern shore +was peopled by immigrants from the already existing marine Australian +fauna. + +Inasmuch as the growth of the reef depends upon that of successive +generations of coral polypes, and as each generation takes a certain +time to grow to its full size, and can only separate its calcareous +skeleton from the water in which it lives at a certain rate, it is clear +that the reefs are records not only of changes in physical geography, +but of the lapse of time. It is by no means easy, however, to estimate +the exact value of reef chronology, and the attempts which have been +made to determine the rate at which a reef grows vertically have yielded +anything but precise results. A cautious writer, Mr. Dana,[125] whose +extensive study of corals and coral reefs makes him an eminently +competent judge, states his conclusion in the following terms:-- + +"The rate of growth of the common branching madrepore is not over one +and a half inches a year. As the branches are open, this would not be +equivalent to more than half an inch in height of solid coral for the +whole surface covered by the madrepore; and, as they are also porous, +to not over three-eighths of an inch of solid limestone. But a coral +plantation has large bare patches without corals, and the coral sands +are widely distributed by currents, part of them to depths over one +hundred feet where there are no living corals; not more than one-sixth +of the surface of a reef region is, in fact, covered with growing +species. This reduces the three-eighths to ONE-SIXTEENTH. Shells and +other organic relics may contribute one-fourth as much as corals. At the +outside, the average upward increase of the whole reef-ground per year +would not exceed ONE-EIGHTH of an inch. + +"Now some reefs are at least two thousand feet thick, which at +one-eighth of an inch a year, corresponds to one hundred and ninety-two +thousand years."* + + * Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 591. + +Halve, or quarter, this estimate if you will, in order to be certain of +erring upon the right side, and still there remains a prodigious +period during which the ancestors of existing coral polypes have +been undisturbedly at work; and during which, therefore, the climatal +conditions over the coral area must have been much what they are now. + +And all this lapse of time has occurred within the most recent period of +the history of the earth. The remains of reefs formed by coral polypes +of different kinds from those which exist now, enter largely into the +composition of the limestones of the Jurassic period;[126] and still +more widely different coral polypes have contributed their quota to the +vast thickness of the carboniferous and Devonian strata. Then as regards +the latter group of rocks in America, the high authority already quoted +tells us:-- + +"The Upper Helderberg period is eminently the coral reef period of the +palaeozoic ages. Many of the rocks abound in coral, and are as truly +coral reefs as the modern reefs of the Pacific. The corals are sometimes +standing on the rocks in the position they had when growing: others are +lying in fragments, as they were broken and heaped by the waves; and +others were reduced to a compact limestone by the finer trituration +before consolidation into rock. This compact variety is the most common +kind among the coral reef rocks of the present seas; and it often +contains but few distinct fossils, although formed in water that +abounded in life. At the fall of the Ohio, near Louisville, there is a +magnificent display of the old reef. Hemispherical Favosites, five or +six feet in diameter, lie there nearly as perfect as when they were +covered by their flowerlike polypes; and besides these, there are +various branching corals, and a profusion of Cyathophyllia, or +cup-corals."* + + * Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 272. + +Thus, in all the great periods of the earth's history of which we know +anything, a part of the then living matter has had the form of polypes, +competent to separate from the water of the sea the carbonate of lime +necessary for their own skeletons. Grain by grain, and particle by +particle, they have built up vast masses of rock, the thickness of which +is measured by hundreds of feet, and their area by thousands of square +miles. The slow oscillations of the crust of the earth, producing great +changes in the distribution of land and water, have often obliged +the living matter of the coral-builders to shift the locality of its +operations; and, by variation and adaptation to these modifications of +condition, its forms have as often changed. The work it has done in the +past is, for the most part, swept away, but fragments remain, and, if +there were no other evidence, suffice to prove the general constancy +of the operations of Nature in this world, through periods of almost +inconceivable duration. + + + + +NOTES + + + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +[Footnote 1: Autobiography: Huxley's account of this sketch, written in +1889, is as follows: "A man who is bringing out a series of portraits of +celebrities, with a sketch of their career attached, has bothered me +out of my life for something to go with my portrait, and to escape the +abominable bad taste of some of the notices, I have done that."] + +[Footnote 2: pre-Boswellian epoch: the time before Boswell. James +Boswell (1740-1795) wrote the famous Life of Samuel Johnson. Mr. Leslie +Stephen declares that this book "became the first specimen of a new +literary type." "It is a full-length portrait of a man's domestic life +with enough picturesque detail to enable us to see him through the eyes +of private friendship. . . ." A number of biographers since Boswell have +imitated his method; and Leslie Stephen believes that "we owe it in some +degree to his example that we have such delightful books as Lockhart's +Life of Scott or Mr. Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay."] + +[Footnote 3: "Bene qui latuit, bene vixit": from Ovid. He who has kept +himself well hidden, has lived well.] + +[Footnote 4: Prince George of Cambridge: the grandson of King George +III, second Duke of Cambridge, and Commander-in-chief of the British +Army.] + +[Footnote 5: Mr. Herbert Spencer (1820--1903): a celebrated English +philosopher and powerful advocate of the doctrine of evolution. Spencer +is regarded as one of the most profound thinkers of modern times. He was +one of Huxley's closest friends.] + +[Footnote 6: in partibus infidelium: in the domain of the unbelievers.] + +[Footnote 7: "sweet south upon a bed of violets." Cf. Twelfth Night, Act +I, sc. I, l. 5. + + O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound + That breathes upon a bank of violets, + Stealing and giving odour. + +For the reading "sweet south" instead of "sweet sound," see Rolfe's +edition of Twelfth Night.] + +[Footnote 8: "Lehrjahre": apprenticeship. + +Charing Cross School of Medicine: a school connected with the Charing +Cross Hospital in the Strand, London.] + +[Footnote 9: Nelson: Horatio Nelson, a celebrated English Admiral born +in Norfolk, England, 1758, and died on board the Victory at Trafalgar, +1805. It was before the battle off Cape Trafalgar that Nelson hoisted +his famous signal, "England expects every man will do his duty." Cf. +Tennyson's Ode to the Duke of Wellington, stanza VI, for a famous +tribute to Nelson.] + +[Footnote 10: middies: abbreviated form for midshipmen.] + +[Footnote 11: Suites a Buffon: sequels to Buffon. Buffon (1707-1781) was +a French naturalist who wrote many volumes on science.] + +[Footnote 12: Linnean Society: a scientific society formed in 1788 under +the auspices of several fellows of the Royal Society.] + +[Footnote 13: Royal Society: The Royal Society for Improving Natural +Knowledge; the oldest scientific society in Great Britain, and one of +the oldest in Europe. It was founded by Charles II, in 1660, its nucleus +being an association of learned men already in existence. It is supposed +to be identical with the Invisible College which Boyle mentions in 1646. +It was incorporated under the name of The Royal Society in 1661. The +publications of the Royal Society are called Philosophical Transactions. +The society has close connection with the government, and has assisted +the government in various important scientific undertakings among +which may be mentioned Parry's North Pole expedition. The society also +distributes $20,000 yearly for the promotion of scientific research.] + +[Footnote 14: Rastignac: a character in Le Pere Goriot. At the close of +the story Rastignac says, "A nous deux, maintenant":--Henceforth there +is war between us.] + +[Footnote 15: Pere Goriot: a novel of Balzac's with a plot similar to +King Lear.] + +[Footnote 16: Professor Tyndall (1820-1893): a distinguished British +physicist and member of the Royal Society. He explored with Huxley the +glaciers of Switzerland. His work in electricity, radiant heat, light +and acoustics gave him a foremost place in science.] + +[Footnote 17: Ecclesiastical spirit: the spirit manifested by the clergy +of England in Huxley's time against the truths of science. The clergy +considered scientific truth to be disastrous to religious truth. +Huxley's attitude toward the teaching of religious truth is illuminated +by this quotation, which he uses to explain his own position: "I have +the fullest confidence that in the reading and explaining of the Bible, +what the children will be taught will be the great truths of Christian +Life and conduct, which all of us desire they should know, and that no +effort will be made to cram into their poor little minds, theological +dogmas which their tender age prevents them from understanding." +Huxley defines his idea of a church as a place in which, "week by +week, services should be devoted, not to the iteration of abstract +propositions in theology, but to the setting before men's minds of an +ideal of true, just and pure living; a place in which those who are +weary of the burden of daily cares should find a moment's rest in the +contemplation of the higher life which is possible for all, though +attained by so few; a place in which the man of strife and of business +should have time to think how small, after all, are the rewards he +covets compared with peace and charity."] + +[Footnote 18: New Reformation: Huxley writes: "We are in the midst of +a gigantic movement greater than that which preceded and produced the +Reformation, and really only the continuation of that movement. . . . +But this organization will be the work of generations of men, and those +who further it most will be those who teach men to rest in no lie, and +to rest in no verbal delusion."] + + + + +ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE (1866) + + +[Footnote 19: On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge: +from Method and Results: also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and +Reviews.] + +For the history of the times mentioned in this essay, see Green's Short +History of the English People.] + +[Footnote 20: The very spot: St. Martin's Borough Hall and Public +Library, on Charing Cross Road, near Trafalgar Square.] + +[Footnote 21: Defoe (1661-1731): an English novelist and political +writer. On account of his political writings Defoe was sentenced +to stand in the pillory, and to be "imprisoned during the Queen's +pleasure." During this imprisonment he wrote many articles. Later in +life he wrote Robinson Crusoe, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll +Flanders, Journal of the Plague Year, and other books less well known.] + +[Footnote 22: unholy cursing and crackling wit of the Rochesters and +Sedleys: John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, and Sir Charles +Sedley, were both friends of Charles II, and were noted for biting wit +and profligacy. Green, in his Short History of the English People, thus +describes them: "Lord Rochester was a fashionable poet, and the titles +of some of his poems are such as no pen of our day could copy. Sir +Charles Sedley was a fashionable wit, and the foulness of his words made +even the porters in the Covent Garden belt him from the balcony when he +ventured to address them."] + +[Footnote 23: Laud: Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud was born in 1573, and +beheaded at London in 1645. He was throughout the reign of Charles I a +staunch supporter of the King. He was impeached by the Long Parliament +in 1640 and executed on Tower Hill, in 1645.] + +[Footnote 24: selenography: the scientific study of the moon with +special reference to its physical condition.] + +[Footnote 25: Torricellian experiment: a reference to the discovery of +the principle of the barometer by the Italian, Torricelli, in 1643.] + +[Footnote 26: Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Bacon endeavored to teach +that civilization cannot be brought to a high point except as man +applies himself to the study of the secrets of nature, and uses +these discoveries for inventions which will give him power over his +environment. The chief value of the work was that it called attention +to the uses of induction and to the experimental study of facts. See +Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy, page 243.] + +[Footnote 27: The learned Dr. Wallis (1616-1703): Dr. Wallis is regarded +as the greatest of Newton's predecessors in mathematical history. His +works are numerous and are on a great variety of subjects. He was one of +the first members of the Royal Society.] + +[Footnote 28: "New Philosophy": Bacon's ideas on science and philosophy +as set forth in his works.] + +[Footnote 29: Royal Society: see note, page 11.] + +[Footnote 30: Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1721): a distinguished natural +philosopher of England. Newton was elected a member of the Royal +Society in 1672. His most important scientific accomplishment was the +establishing of the law of universal gravitation. The story of the +fall of the apple was first related by Voltaire to whom it was given by +Newton's niece.] + +[Footnote 31: "Philosophical Transactions": the publications of the +Royal Society.] + +[Footnote 32: Galileo (1564-1642): a famous Italian astronomer. His most +noted work was the construction of the thermometer and a telescope. He +discovered the satellites of Jupiter in 1610. In 1610, also, he observed +the sun's spots. His views were condemned by the Pope in 1616 and in +1633 he was forced by the Inquisition to abjure the Copernican theory.] + +[Footnote 33: Vesalius (1514-1564): a noted Belgian anatomist.] + +[Footnote 34: Harvey (1578-1657): an English physiologist and anatomist. +He is noted especially for his discovery of the circulation of the +blood.] + +[Footnote 35: Subtle speculations: Selby gives examples from questions +discussed by Thomas Aquinas. Whether all angels belong to the same +genus, whether demons are evil by nature, or by will, whether they can +change one substance into another, . . . whether an angel can move from +one point to another without passing through intermediate space.] + +[Footnote 36: Schoolmen: a term used to designate the followers of +scholasticism, a philosophy of dogmatic religion which assumed a certain +subject-matter as absolute and unquestionable. The duty of the Schoolman +was to explain church doctrine; these explanations were characterized +by fine distinctions and by an absence of real content. See Roger's A +Student's History of Philosophy; also Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy +and Psychology.] + +[Footnote 37: "writ in water": an allusion to Keats' request that the +words "Here lies one whose name was writ in water" be his epitaph. The +words are inscribed on his tomb in the Protestant Cemetery at Rome.] + +[Footnote 38: Lord Brouncker: The first president of the Royal Society +after its incorporation in 1662 was Lord Brouneker.] + +[Footnote 39: revenant: ghost.] + +[Footnote 40: Boyle: Robert Boyle (1627-1691): a British chemist and +natural philosopher who was noted especially for his discovery of +Boyle's law of the elasticity of air.] + +[Footnote 41: Evelyn (1620-1706): an English author and member of the +Royal Society. His most important work is the Diary, valuable for the +full account which it gives of the manners and customs of the time.] + +[Footnote 42: The Restoration: In English history the re-establishing +of the English monarchy with the return of King Charles II in 1660; +by extension the whole reign of Charles II: as, the dramatists of the +Restoration. Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 43: Aladdin's lamps: a reference to the story of the Wonderful +Lamp in the Arabian Nights. The magic lamp brought marvelous good +fortune to the poor widow's son who possessed it. Cf. also Lowell's +Aladdin:-- + + When I was a beggarly boy, + And lived in a cellar damp, + I had not a friend or a toy, + But I had Aladdin's lamp; + When I could not sleep for the cold, + I had fire enough in my brain, + And builded, with roofs of gold, + My beautiful castles in Spain!] + +[Footnote 44: "When in heaven the stars": from Tennyson's Specimens of a +Translation of the Iliad in Blank Verse.] + +[Footnote 45: "increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate": +Bacon's statement of his purpose in writing the Advancement of +Learning.] + +[Footnote 46: For example, etc.: could the sentence beginning thus be +written in better form?] + +[Footnote 47: Rumford (1738-1814): Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an +eminent scientist. Rumford was born in America and educated at Harvard. +Suspected of loyalty to the King at the time of the revolution, he was +imprisoned. Acquitted, he went to England where he became prominent in +politics and science. Invested with the title of Count by the Holy Roman +Empire, he chose Rumford for his title after the name of the little +New Hampshire town where he had taught. He gave a large sum of money to +Harvard College to found the Rumford professorship of science.] + +[Footnote 48: eccentric: out of the centre.] + + + + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION (1868) + + +[Footnote 49: A Liberal Education: from Science and Education; also +published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.] + +[Footnote 50: Ichabod: cf. 1 Sam. iv, 21.] + +[Footnote 51: senior wranglership: in Cambridge University, England, +one who has attained the first class in the elementary division of the +public examination for honors in pure and mixed mathematics, commonly +called the mathematical tripos, those who compose the second rank of +honors being designated senior optimes, and those of the third order +junior optimes. The student taking absolutely the first place in the +mathematical tripos used to be called senior wrangler, those following +next in the same division being respectively termed second, third, +fourth, etc., wranglers. Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 52: double-first: any candidate for the degree of Bachelor of +Arts in Oxford University who takes first-class honors in both classics +and mathematics is said to have won a double-first.] + +[Footnote 53: Retzsch (1779-1857): a well-known German painter and +engraver.] + +[Footnote 54: Test-Act: an English statute of 1673. It compelled all +persons holding office under the crown to take the oaths of supremacy +and of allegiance, to receive the sacrament according to the usage +of the Church of England, and to subscribe to the Declaration against +Transubstantiation.] + +[Footnote 55: Poll: an abbreviation and transliteration of [Footnote +Greek words], "the mob"; university slang for the whole body of students +taking merely the degree of Bachelor of Arts, at Cambridge.] + +[Footnote 56: pluck: the rejection of a student, after examinations, who +does not come up to the standard.] + + + + +ON A PIECE OF CHALK + + +[Footnote 57: On a Piece of Chalk: a lecture to working-men from Lay +Sermons, Addresses and Reviews.] + +[Footnote 58: Needles of the Isle of Wight: the needles are three +white, pointed rocks of chalk, resting on dark-colored bases, and +rising abruptly from the sea to a height of 100 feet. Baedeker's Great +Britain.] + +[Footnote 59: Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough Head: Lulworth is on +the southern coast of England, west of the Isle of Wight: Flamborough +Head is on the northeastern coast of England and extends into the German +Ocean.] + +[Footnote 60: Weald: a name given to an oval-shaped chalk area in +England, beginning near the Straits of Dover, and extending into the +counties of Kent, Surrey, Hants, and Sussex.] + +[Footnote 61: Lieut. Brooke: Brooke devised an apparatus for deep-sea +sounding from which the weight necessary to sink the instrument rapidly, +was detached when it reached the bottom. The object was to relieve the +strain on the rope caused by rapid soundings. Improved apparatuses have +been invented since the time of Brooke.] + +[Footnote 62: Ehrenberg (1795-1876): a German naturalist noted for his +studies of Infusoria.] + +[Footnote 63: Bailey of West Point (1811-1857): an American naturalist +noted for his researches in microscopy.] + +[Footnote 64: enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable: the first +Atlantic telegraph-cable between England and America was laid in 1858 by +Cyrus W. Field of New York. Messages were sent over it for a few weeks; +then it ceased to act. A permanent cable was laid by Mr. Field in 1866.] + +[Footnote 65: Dr. Wallich (1786-1854): a Danish botanist and member of +the Royal Society.] + +[Footnote 66: Mr. Sorby: President of the Geological Society of +England, and author of many papers on subjects connected with physical +geography.] + +[Footnote 67: Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875): a British geologist, and +one of the first to uphold Darwin's Origin of Species.] + +[Footnote 68: Echinus: the sea-urchin; an animal which dwells in a +spheroidal shell built up from polygonal plates, and covered with sharp +spines.] + +[Footnote 69: Somme: a river of northern France which flows into the +English Channel northeast of Dieppe.] + +[Footnote 70: the chipped flints of Hoxne and Amiens: the rude +instruments which were made by primitive man were of chipped flint. +Numerous discoveries of large flint implements have been made in the +north of France, near Amiens, and in England. The first noted flint +implements were discovered in Hoxne, Suffolk, England, 1797. Cf. Evans' +Ancient Stone Implements and Lyell's Antiquity of Man.] + +[Footnote 71: Rev. Mr. Gunn (1800-1881): an English naturalist. Mr. +Gunn sent from Tasmania a large number of plants and animals now in the +British Museum.] + +[Footnote 72: "the whirligig of time": cf. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, +Act V, se. I, l. 395.] + +[Footnote 73: Euphrates and Hiddekel: cf. Genesis ii, 14.] + +[Footnote 74: the great river, the river of Babylon: cf. Genesis xv, 18] + +[Footnote 75: Without haste, but without rest: from Goethe's Zahme +Xenien. In a letter to his sister, Huxley says: "And then perhaps by the +following of my favorite motto,-- + + "'Wie das Gestirn, + Ohne Hast, + Ohne Rast'-- + + something may be done, and some of Sister Lizzie's fond + imaginations turn out not altogether untrue." The quotation entire + is as follows:-- + + Wie das Gestirn, + Ohne Hast, + Aber ohne Rast, + Drehe sich jeder + Um die eigne Last.] + + + + +THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION (1882) + + +[Footnote 76: The Principal Subjects of Education: an extract from the +essay, Science and Art in Relation to Education.] + +[Footnote 77: this discussion: "this" refers to the last sentence in the +preceding paragraph, in which Huxley says that it will be impossible to +determine the amount of time to be given to the principal subjects +of education until it is determined "what the principal subjects of +education ought to be."] + +[Footnote 78: Francis Bacon: cf. note [Footnote 26].] + +[Footnote 79: the best chance of being happy: In connection with +Huxley's work on the London School Board, his biographer says that +Huxley did not regard "intellectual training only from the utilitarian +point of view; he insisted, e. g., on the value of reading for amusement +as one of the most valuable uses to hardworked people."] + +[Footnote 80: "Harmony in grey": cf. with l. 34 in Browning's Andrea del +Sarto.] + +[Footnote 81: Hobbes (1588-1679): noted for his views of human nature +and of politics. According to Minto, "The merits ascribed to his style +are brevity, simplicity and precision."] + +[Footnote 82: Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753): an Irish prelate noted for +his philosophical writings and especially for his theory of vision which +was the foundation for modern investigations of the subject. "His style +has always been esteemed admirable; simple, felicitous and sweetly +melodious. His dialogues are sustained with great skill." Minto's Manual +of English Prose Literature.] + +[Footnote 83: We have been recently furnished with in prose: The Iliad +of Homer translated by Lang, Leaf and Myers, the first edition of +which appeared in 1882, is probably the one to which Huxley refers. The +Odyssey, translated by Butcher and Lang, appeared in 1879. Among the +best of the more recent translations of Homer are the Odyssey by George +Herbert Palmer; the Iliad by Arthur S. Way, and the Odyssey by the same +author.] + +[Footnote 84: Locke (1632-1704): an English philosopher of great +influence. His chief work is An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.] + +[Footnote 85: Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit: thus Francis Bacon +thought.] + + + + +THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION (1863) + + +[Footnote 86: The Method of Scientific Investigation is an extract +from the third of six lectures given to workingmen on The Causes of the +Phenomena of Organic Nature in Darwiniana.] + +[Footnote 87: these terrible apparatus: apparatus is the form for both +the singular and plural; apparatuses is another form for the plural.] + +[Footnote 88: Incident in one of Moliere's plays: the allusion is to the +hero, M. Jourdain in the play, "La Bourgeois Gentilbomme."] + +[Footnote 89: these kind: modern writers regard kind as singular. +Shakespeare treated it as a plural noun, as "These kind of knaves I +knew."] + +[Footnote 90: Newton: cf. [Footnote 30].] + +[Footnote 91: Laplace (1749-1827): a celebrated French astronomer and +mathematician. He is best known for his theory of the formation of the +planetary systems, the so-called "nebular hypothesis." Until recently +this hypothesis has generally been accepted in its main outlines. It +is now being supplanted by the "Spiral Nebular Hypothesis" developed +by Professors Moulton and Chamberlin of the University of Chicago. See +Moulton's Introduction to Astronomy, p. 463.] + + + + +ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE (1868) + + +[Footnote 92: On the Physical Basis of Life: from Methods and Results; +also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews. "The substance of +this paper was contained in a discourse which was delivered in Edinburgh +on the evening of Sunday, the 8th of November, 1868--being the first +of a series of Sunday evening addresses upon non-theological topics, +instituted by the Rev. J. Cranbrook. Some phrases, which could possess +only a transitory and local interest, have been omitted; instead of +the newspaper report of the Archbishop of York's address, his Grace's +subsequently published pamphlet On the Limits of Philosophical inquiry +is quoted, and I have, here and there, endeavoured to express my meaning +more fully and clearly than I seem to have done in speaking--if I may +judge by sundry criticisms upon what I am supposed to have said, which +have appeared. But in substance, and, so far as my recollection +serves, in form, what is here written corresponds with what was there +said."--Huxley.] + +[Footnote 93: Finner whale: a name given to a whale which has a dorsal +fin. A Finner whale commonly measures from 60 to 90 feet in length.] + +[Footnote 94: A fortiori: with stronger reason: still more +conclusively.] + +[Footnote 95: well-known epigram: from Goethe's Venetianische Epigramme. +The following is a translation of the passage: Why do the people push +each other and shout? They want to work for their living, bring forth +children; and feed them as well as they possibly can. . . . No man can +attain to more, however much he may pretend to the contrary.] + +[Footnote 96: Maelstroms: a celebrated whirlpool or violent current in +the Arctic Ocean, near the western coast of Norway, between the islands +of Moskenaso and Mosken, formerly supposed to suck in and destroy +everything that approached it at any time, but now known not to be +dangerous except under certain conditions. Century Dictionary. Cf. also +Poe's Descent into the Maelstrom.] + +[Footnote 97: Milne-Edwards (1800-1885): a French naturalist. His +Elements de Zoologie won him a great reputation.] + +[Footnote 98: with such qualifications as arises: a typographical +error.] + +[Footnote 99: De Bary (1831-1888): a German botanist noted especially +for his researches in cryptogamic botany.] + +[Footnote 100: No Man's Land: Huxley probably intends no specific +geographical reference. The expression is common as a designation of +some remote and unfrequented locality.] + +[Footnote 101: Kuhne (1837-1900): a German physiologist and professor of +science at Amsterdam and Heidelberg.] + +[Footnote 102: Debemur morti nos nostraque: Horace--Ars Poetica, line +63. + + As forests change their foliage year by year, + Leaves, that come first, first fall and disappear; + So antique words die out, and in their room, + Others spring up, of vigorous growth and bloom; + Ourselves and all that's ours, to death are due, + And why should words not be mortal too? + +Martin's translation.] + +[Footnote 103: peau de chagrin: skin of a wild ass.] + +[Footnote 104: Balzac (1799-1850): a celebrated French novelist of the +realistic school of fiction.] + +[Footnote 105: Barmecide feast: the allusion is to a story in the +Arabian Nights in which a member of the Barmecide family places a +succession of empty dishes before a beggar, pretending that they contain +a rich repast.] + +[Footnote 106: modus operandi: method of working.] + +[Footnote 107: Martinus Scriblerus: a reference to Memoirs of Martinus +Scriblerus written principally by John Arbuthnot, and published in +1741. The purpose of the papers is given by Warburton and Spence in +the following extracts quoted from the Preface to the Memoirs of the +Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus in +Elwin and Courthope's edition of Pope's works, vol. x, p. 273:-- "Mr. +Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Dr. Swift, in conjunction, formed the project +of a satire on the abuses of human learning; and to make it better +received, proposed to execute it in the manner of Cervantes (the +original author of this species of satire) under a continued narrative +of feigned adventures. They had observed that those abuses still kept +their ground against all that the ablest and gravest authors could say +to discredit them; they concluded, therefore, the force of ridicule was +wanting to quicken their disgrace; and ridicule was here in its place, +when the abuses had been already detected by sober reasoning; and +truth in no danger to suffer by the premature use of so powerful an +instrument."] + +"The design of this work, as stated by Pope himself, is to ridicule all +the false tastes in learning under the character of a man of capacity +enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but injudiciously +in each. It was begun by a club of some of the greatest wits of the +age--Lord Oxford, the Bishop of Rochester, Pope, Congreve, Swift, +Arbuthnot, and others. Gay often held the pen; and Addison liked it very +well, and was not disinclined to come into it."] + +[Footnote 108: accounted for the operation of the meat-jack: from the +paper "To the learned inquisitor into nature, Martinus Scriblerus: the +society of free thinkers greeting." Elwin and Courthope, Pope's works, +vol. ?, p. 332.] + +[Footnote 109: The remainder of the essay endeavors to meet the charge +of materialism. The following is the conclusion:--"In itself it is of +little moment whether we express the phaenomena of matter in terms of +spirit; or the phaenomena of spirit in terms of matter: matter may be +regarded as a form of thought, thought may be regarded as a property of +matter--each statement has a certain relative truth. But with a view to +the progress of science, the materialistic terminology is in every way +to be preferred. For it connects thought with the other phaenomena of +the universe, and suggests inquiry into the nature of those physical +conditions, or concomitants of thought, which are more or less +accessible to us, and a knowledge of which may, in future, help us +to exercise the same kind of control over the world of thought, as +we already possess in respect of the material world; whereas, the +alternative, or spiritualistic, terminology is utterly barren, and leads +to nothing but obscurity and confusion of ideas. + +"Thus there can be little doubt, that the further science advances, the +more extensively and consistently will all the phaenomena of Nature +be represented by materialistic formulae and symbols. But the man of +science, who, forgetting the limits of philosophical inquiry, slides +from these formulae and symbols into what is commonly understood +by materialism, seems to me to place himself on a level with the +mathematician, who should mistake the x's and y's with which he works +his problems, for real entities--and with this further disadvantage, as +compared with the mathematician, that the blunders of the latter are of +no practical consequence, while the errors of systematic materialism may +paralyze the energies and destroy the beauty of a life."] + + + + +ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS (1870) + + +[Footnote 110: On Coral and Coral Reefs: from Critiques and Addresses. +The essay was published in 1870.] + +[Footnote 111: Sic et curalium: Thus also the coral, as soon as it +touches the air turns hard. It was a soft plant under the water.] + +[Footnote 112: Boccone (1633-1704): a noted Sicilian naturalist.] + +[Footnote 113: Marsigli (1658-1730): an Italian soldier and naturalist. +He wrote A Physical History of the Sea.] + +[Footnote 114: "Traite du Corail": "I made the coral bloom in vases full +of sea-water, and I noticed that what we believe to be the flower of +this so-called plant was in reality only an insect similar to a little +nettle or polype. I had the pleasure to see the paws or feet of this +nettle move, and having placed the vase full of water in which the coral +was, near the fire, at a moderate heat, all the little insects expanded, +the nettle stretched out its feet and formed what M. de Marsigli and +I had taken for the petals of the flower. The calyx of this so-called +flower is the very body of the animal issued from its cell."] + +[Footnote 115: Reaumur (1683-1757): a French physiologist and +naturalist, best known as the inventor of the Reaumur thermometer. He +was a member of the French Academy of Science.] + +[Footnote 116: Bishop Wilson: Thomas Wilson (1663-1755), bishop of the +Isle of Man. Details of his life are given in the folio edition of his +works (1782). An appreciation of his religious writings is given by +Matthew Arnold in Culture and Anarchy. Bishop Wilson's words, "To make +reason and the will of God prevail," are the theme of Arnold's essay, +Sweetness and Light.] + +[Footnote 117: An eminent modern writer: Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), +eldest son of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby; a distinguished critic +and poet, and professor of poetry at Oxford. The allusion is to Arnold's +essay, Sweetness and Light. The phrase, "sweetness and light," is +one which Aesop uses in Swift's Battle of the Books to sum up the +superiority of the ancients over the moderns. "As for us, the ancients, +we are content, with the bee, to pretend to nothing of our own beyond +our wings and our voice, that is to say, our flights and our language; +for the rest, whatever we have got has been by infinite labor and +search, and ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is, +that instead of dirt and poison we have rather chose to fill our hives +with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest things, +which are sweetness and light." Arnold's purpose in the essay is +to define the cultured man as one who endeavors to make beauty and +intelligence prevail everywhere.] + +[Footnote 118: Abbe Trembley (1700-1784): a Swiss naturalist. He wrote +"Memoires pour servir a l'histoire d'un genre de polypes d'eau douce, a +bras en forme de cornes."] + +[Footnote 119: Bernard de Jussieu (1699-1776): a French botanist; +founder of the natural classification of plants. He was superintendent +of the Trianon Gardens.] + +[Footnote 120: Guettard (1715-1786): a French naturalist.] + +[Footnote 121: Monte Nuovo within the old crater of Somma: Monte Nuovo, +a mountain west of Naples; Somma, a mountain north of Vesuvius which +with its lofty, semicircular cliff encircles the active cone of +Vesuvius.] + +[Footnote 122: Mauritius: an island in the Indian Ocean; Huxley visited +the island when on the voyage with the Rattlesnake. He wrote to his +mother of his visit: "This island is, you know, the scene of Saint +Pierre's beautiful story of Paul and Virginia, over which I suppose most +people have sentimentalized at one time or another of their lives. +Until we reached here I did not know that the tale was like the lady's +improver--a fiction founded on fact, and that Paul and Virginia were at +one time flesh and blood, and that their veritable dust was buried at +Pamplemousses in a spot considered as one of the lions of the place, and +visited as classic ground."] + +[Footnote 123: Mr. Darwin's coral reefs: The Structure and Distribution +of Coral Reefs, published in 1848.] + +[Footnote 124: Professor Jukes (1811-1869): an English geologist.] + +[Footnote 125: Mr. Dana (1813-1895): a well-known American geologist and +mineralogist; a professor at Yale from 1845. He wrote a number of books +among which is Coral and Coral Reefs.] + +[Footnote 126: Jurassic period: that part of the geological series which +is older than the Cretaceous and newer than the Triassic; so called from +the predominance of rocks of this age in the Jura Mountains. The three +great divisions of fossiliferous rocks are called the Triassic, the +Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.] + + + + +REFERENCE BOOKS + + +The following reference books are suggested for a more complete +treatment of various points in the text:--Andrews' History of England. +Green's Short History of the English People. Traill's Social England. +Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy. Royce's The Spirit of +Modern Philosophy. Huxley's Life and Letters. Smalley's Mr. Huxley, in +Scribner's Magazine for October, 1905. Darwin's Life and Letters. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Autobiography and Selected Essays, by +Thomas Henry Huxley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 1315.txt or 1315.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/1315/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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I have instead inserted numbers within the text +in the format [xx] and cross-referenced these to the appropriate +notes. + + + + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED ESSAYS + +by + +THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY + + + + +Edited, with introduction and notes by Ada L. F. Snell +Associate Professor Of English +Mount Holyoke College + +Riverside College Classics +Copyright 1909 + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +INTRODUCTION + + The Life of Huxley + + Subject-matter, Structure, and Style of Essays + + Suggested Studies + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION + +ON A PIECE OF CHALK + +THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION + +THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION + +ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE + +ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS + +NOTES + + + +PREFACE + + +The purpose of the following selections is to present to students +of English a few of Huxley's representative essays. Some of these +selections are complete; others are extracts. In the latter case, +however, they are not extracts in the sense of being incomplete +wholes, for each selection given will be found to have, in +Aristotle's phrase, "a beginning, a middle, and an end." That they +are complete in themselves, although only parts of whole essays, is +due to the fact that Huxley, in order to make succeeding material +clear, often prepares the way with a long and careful definition. +Such is the nature of the extract A Liberal Education, in reality a +definition to make distinct and forcible his ideas on the +shortcomings of English schools. Such a definition, also, is The +Method of Scientific Investigation. + +The footnotes are those of the author. Other notes on the text have +been included for the benefit of schools inadequately equipped with +reference books. It is hoped, however, that the notes may be found +not to be so numerous as to prevent the training of the student in +a self-reliant and scholarly use of dictionaries and reference +books; it is hoped, also, that they may serve to stimulate him to +trace out for himself more completely any subject connected with +the text in which he may feel a peculiar interest. It should be +recognized that notes are of value only as they develop power to +read intelligently. If unintelligently relied upon, they may even +foster indifference and lazy mental habits. + +I wish to express my obligation to Miss Flora Bridges, whose +careful reading of the manuscript has been most helpful, and to +Professor Clara F. Stevens, the head of the English Department at +Mount Holyoke College, whose very practical aid made this volume +possible. + +A. L. F. S. + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +I + +THE LIFE OF HUXLEY + + +Of Huxley's life and of the forces which moulded his thought, the +Autobiography gives some account; but many facts which are +significant are slighted, and necessarily the later events of his +life are omitted. To supplement the story as given by him is the +purpose of this sketch. The facts for this account are gathered +entirely from the Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, by his +son. For a real acquaintance with Huxley, the student should +consult this source for himself; he will count the reading of the +Life and Letters among the rare pleasures which have come to him +through books. + +Thomas Henry Huxley was born on May 4, 1825. His autobiography +gives a full account of his parents, his early boyhood, and his +education. Of formal education, Huxley had little; but he had the +richer schooling which nature and life give an eager mind. He read +widely; he talked often with older people; he was always +investigating the why of things. He kept a journal in which he +noted thoughts gathered from books, and ideas on the causes of +certain phenomena. In this journal he frequently wrote what he had +done and had set himself to do in the way of increasing his +knowledge. Self-conducted, also, was his later education at the +Charing Cross Hospital. Here, like Stevenson in his university +days, Huxley seemed to be idle, but in reality, he was always busy +on his own private end. So constantly did he work over the +microscope that the window at which he sat came to be dubbed by his +fellow students "The Sign of the Head and Microscope." Moreover, +in his regular courses at Charing Cross, he seems to have done work +sufficiently notable to be recognized by several prizes and a gold +medal. + +Of his life after the completion of his medical course, of his +search for work, of his appointment as assistant surgeon on board +the Rattlesnake, and of his scientific work during the four years' +cruise, Huxley gives a vivid description in the autobiography. As +a result of his investigations on this voyage, he published various +essays which quickly secured for him a position in the scientific +world as a naturalist of the first rank. A testimony of the value +of this work was his election to membership in the Royal Society. + +Although Huxley had now, at the age of twenty-six, won distinction +in science, he soon discovered that it was not so easy to earn +bread thereby. Nevertheless, to earn a living was most important +if he were to accomplish the two objects which he had in view. He +wished, in the first place, to marry Miss Henrietta Heathorn of +Sydney, to whom he had become engaged when on the cruise with the +Rattlesnake; his second object was to follow science as a +profession. The struggle to find something connected with science +which would pay was long and bitter; and only a resolute +determination to win kept Huxley from abandoning it altogether. +Uniform ill-luck met him everywhere. He has told in his +autobiography of his troubles with the Admiralty in the endeavor to +get his papers published, and of his failure there. He applied for +a position to teach science in Toronto; being unsuccessful in this +attempt, he applied successively for various professorships in the +United Kingdom, and in this he was likewise unsuccessful. Some of +his friends urged him to hold out, but others thought the fight an +unequal one, and advised him to emigrate to Australia. He himself +was tempted to practice medicine in Sydney; but to give up his +purpose seemed to him like cowardice. On the other hand, to +prolong the struggle indefinitely when he might quickly earn a +living in other ways seemed like selfishness and an injustice to +the woman to whom he had been for a long time engaged. Miss +Heathorn, however, upheld him in his determination to pursue +science; and his sister also, he writes, cheered him by her advice +and encouragement to persist in the struggle. Something of the +man's heroic temper may be gathered from a letter which he wrote to +Miss Heathorn when his affairs were darkest. "However painful our +separation may be," he says, "the spectacle of a man who had given +up the cherished purpose of his life . . . would, before long years +were over our heads, be infinitely more painful." He declares that +he is hemmed in by all sorts of difficulties. "Nevertheless the +path has shown itself a fair one, neither more difficult nor less +so than most paths in life in which a man of energy may hope to do +much if he believes in himself, and is at peace within." Thus +relieved in mind, he makes his decision in spite of adverse fate. +"My course of life is taken, I will not leave London--I WILL make +myself a name and a position as well as an income by some kind of +pursuit connected with science which is the thing for which Nature +has fitted me if she has ever fitted any one for anything." + +But suddenly the long wait, the faith in self, were justified, and +the turning point came. "There is always a Cape Horn in one's life +that one either weathers or wrecks one's self on," he writes to his +sister. "Thank God, I think I may say I have weathered mine--not +without a good deal of damage to spars and rigging though, for it +blew deuced hard on the other side." In 1854 a permanent +lectureship was offered him at the Government School of Mines; +also, a lectureship at St. Thomas' Hospital; and he was asked to +give various other lecture courses. He thus found himself able to +establish the home for which he had waited eight years. In July, +1855, he was married to Miss Heathorn. + +The succeeding years from 1855 to 1860 were filled with various +kinds of work connected with science: original investigation, +printing of monographs, and establishing of natural history +museums. His advice concerning local museums is interesting and +characteristically expressed. "It [the local museum if properly +arranged] will tell both natives and strangers exactly what they +want to know, and possess great scientific interest and importance. +Whereas the ordinary lumber-room of clubs from New Zealand, Hindu +idols, sharks' teeth, mangy monkeys, scorpions, and conch shells-- +who shall describe the weary inutility of it? It is really worse +than nothing, because it leads the unwary to look for objects of +science elsewhere than under their noses. What they want to know +is that their 'America is here,' as Wilhelm Meister has it." +During this period, also, he began his lectures to workingmen, +calling them Peoples' Lectures. "POPULAR lectures," he said, "I +hold to be an abomination unto the Lord." Working-men attended +these lectures in great numbers, and to them Huxley seemed to be +always able to speak at his best. His purpose in giving these +lectures should be expressed in his own words: "I want the working +class to understand that Science and her ways are great facts for +them--that physical virtue is the base of all other, and that they +are to be clean and temperate and all the rest--not because fellows +in black and white ties tell them so, but because there are plain +and patent laws which they must obey 'under penalties.'" + +Toward the close of 1859, Darwin's "Origin of Species" was +published. It raised a great outcry in England; and Huxley +immediately came forward as chief defender of the faith therein set +forth. He took part in debates on this subject, the most famous of +which was the one between himself and Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford. +The Bishop concluded his speech by turning to Huxley and asking, +"Was it through his grandfather or grandmother that he claimed +descent from a monkey?" Huxley, as is reported by an eye-witness, +"slowly and deliberately arose. A slight tall figure, stern and +pale, very quiet and grave, he stood before us and spoke those +tremendous words. . . . He was not ashamed to have a monkey for an +ancestor; but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who +used great gifts to obscure the truth." Another story indicates +the temper of that time. Carlyle, whose writing had strongly +influenced Huxley, and whom Huxley had come to know, could not +forgive him for his attitude toward evolution. One day, years +after the publication of Man's Place in Nature, Huxley, seeing +Carlyle on the other side of the street, a broken, pathetic figure, +walked over and spoke to him. The old man merely remarked, "You're +Huxley, aren't you? the man that says we are all descended from +monkeys," and passed on. Huxley, however, saw nothing degrading to +man's dignity in the theory of evolution. In a wonderfully fine +sentence he gives his own estimate of the theory as it affects +man's future on earth. "Thoughtful men once escaped from the +blinding influences of traditional prejudices, will find in the +lowly stock whence man has sprung the best evidence of the +splendour of his capacities; and will discover, in his long +progress through the past, a reasonable ground of faith in his +attainment of a nobler future." As a result of all these +controversies on The Origin of Species and of investigations to +uphold Darwin's theory, Huxley wrote his first book, already +mentioned, Man's Place in Nature. + +To read a list of the various kinds of work which Huxley was doing +from 1870 to 1875 is to be convinced of his abundant energy and +many interests. At about this time Huxley executed the plan which +he had had in mind for a long time, the establishment of +laboratories for the use of students. His object was to furnish a +more exact preliminary training. He complains that the student who +enters the medical school is "so habituated to learn only from +books, or oral teaching, that the attempt to learn from things and +to get his knowledge at first hand is something new and strange." +To make this method of teaching successful in the schools, Huxley +gave practical instruction in laboratory work to school-masters. + +"If I am to be remembered at all," Huxley once wrote, "I would +rather it should be as a man who did his best to help the people +than by any other title." Certainly as much of his time as could +be spared from his regular work was given to help others. His +lectures to workingmen and school-masters have already been +mentioned. In addition, he lectured to women on physiology and to +children on elementary science. In order to be of greater service +to the children, Huxley, in spite of delicate health, became a +member of the London School Board. His immediate object was "to +temper book-learning with something of the direct knowledge of +Nature." His other purposes were to secure a better physical +training for children and to give them a clearer understanding of +social and moral law. He did not believe, on the one hand, in +overcrowding the curriculum, but, on the other hand, he "felt that +all education should be thrown open to all that each man might know +to what state in life he was called." Another statement of his +purpose and beliefs is given by Professor Gladstone, who says of +his work on the board: "He resented the idea that schools were to +train either congregations for churches or hands for factories. He +was on the Board as a friend of children. What he sought to do for +the child was for the child's sake, that it might live a fuller, +truer, worthier life." + +The immense amount of work which Huxley did in these years told +very seriously on his naturally weak constitution. It became +necessary for him finally for two successive years to stop work +altogether. In 1872 he went to the Mediterranean and to Egypt. +This was a holiday full of interest for a man like Huxley who +looked upon the history of the world and man's place in the world +with a keen scientific mind. Added to this scientific bent of +mind, moreover, Huxley had a deep appreciation for the picturesque +in nature and life. Bits of description indicate his enjoyment in +this vacation. He writes of his entrance to the Mediterranean, "It +was a lovely morning, and nothing could be grander than Ape Hill on +one side and the Rock on the other, looking like great lions or +sphinxes on each side of a gateway." In Cairo, Huxley found much +to interest him in archaeology, geology, and the every-day life of +the streets. At the end of a month, he writes that he is very well +and very grateful to Old Nile for all that he has done for him, not +the least "for a whole universe of new thoughts and pictures of +life." The trip, however, did no lasting good. In 1873 Huxley was +again very ill, but was under such heavy costs at this time that +another vacation was impossible. At this moment, a critical one in +his life, some of his close scientific friends placed to his credit +twenty-one hundred pounds to enable him to take the much needed +rest. Darwin wrote to Huxley concerning the gift: "In doing this +we are convinced that we act for the public interest." He assured +Huxley that the friends who gave this felt toward him as a brother. +"I am sure that you will return this feeling and will therefore be +glad to give us the opportunity of aiding you in some degree, as +this will be a happiness to us to the last day of our lives." The +gift made it possible for Huxley to take another long vacation, +part of which was spent with Sir Joseph Hooker, a noted English +botanist, visiting the volcanoes of Auvergne. After this trip he +steadily improved in health, with no other serious illness for ten +years. + +In 1876 Huxley was invited to visit America and to deliver the +inaugural address at Johns Hopkins University. In July of this +year accordingly, in company with his wife, he crossed to New York. +Everywhere Huxley was received with enthusiasm, for his name was a +very familiar one. Two quotations from his address at Johns +Hopkins are especially worthy of attention as a part of his message +to Americans. "It has been my fate to see great educational funds +fossilise into mere bricks and mortar in the petrifying springs of +architecture, with nothing left to work them. A great warrior is +said to have made a desert and called it peace. Trustees have +sometimes made a palace and called it a university." + +The second quotation is as follows:-- + + +I cannot say that I am in the slightest degree impressed by your +bigness or your material resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, +territory does not make a nation. The great issue, about which +hangs true sublimity, and the terror of overhanging fate, is, what +are you going to do with all these things? . . . + +The one condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral +worth and intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. +Education cannot give these, but it can cherish them and bring them +to the front in whatever station of society they are to be found, +and the universities ought to be, and may be, the fortresses of the +higher life of the nation. + + +After the return from America, the same innumerable occupations +were continued. It would be impossible in short space even to +enumerate all Huxley's various publications of the next ten years. +His work, however, changed gradually from scientific investigation +to administrative work, not the least important of which was the +office of Inspector of Fisheries. A second important office was +the Presidency of the Royal Society. Of the work of this society +Sir Joseph Hooker writes: "The duties of the office are manifold +and heavy; they include attendance at all the meetings of the +Fellows, and of the councils, committees, and sub-committees of the +Society, and especially the supervision of the printing and +illustrating all papers on biological subjects that are published +in the Society's Transactions and Proceedings; the latter often +involving a protracted correspondence with the authors. To this +must be added a share in the supervision of the staff officers, of +the library and correspondence, and the details of house-keeping." +All the work connected with this and many other offices bespeaks a +life too hard-driven and accounts fully for the continued ill- +health which finally resulted in a complete break-down. + +Huxley had always advocated that the age of sixty was the time for +"official death," and had looked forward to a peaceful "Indian +summer." With this object in mind and troubled by increasing ill- +health, he began in 1885 to give up his work. But to live even in +comparative idleness, after so many years of activity, was +difficult. "I am sure," he says, "that the habit of incessant work +into which we all drift is as bad in its way as dram-drinking. In +time you cannot be comfortable without stimulus." But continued +bodily weakness told upon him to the extent that all work became +distasteful. An utter weariness with frequent spells of the blues +took possession of him; and the story of his life for some years is +the story of the long pursuit of health in England, Switzerland, +and especially in Italy. + +Although Huxley was wretchedly ill during this period, he wrote +letters which are good to read for their humor and for their +pictures of foreign cities. Rome he writes of as an idle, +afternoony sort of place from which it is difficult to depart. He +worked as eagerly over the historic remains in Rome as he would +over a collection of geological specimens. "I begin to understand +Old Rome pretty well and I am quite learned in the Catacombs, which +suit me, as a kind of Christian fossils out of which one can +reconstruct the body of the primitive Church." Florence, for a man +with a conscience and ill-health, had too many picture galleries. +"They are a sore burden to the conscience if you don't go to see +them, and an awful trial to the back and legs if you do," he +complained. He found Florence, nevertheless, a lovely place and +full of most interesting things to see and do. His letters with +reference to himself also are vigorously and entertainingly +expressed. He writes in a characteristic way of his growing +difficulty with his hearing. "It irritates me not to hear; it +irritates me still more to be spoken to as if I were deaf, and the +absurdity of being irritated on the last ground irritates me still +more." And again he writes in a more hopeful strain, "With fresh +air and exercise and careful avoidance of cold and night air I am +to be all right again." He then adds: "I am not fond of coddling; +but as Paddy gave his pig the best corner in his cabin--because +'shure, he paid the rint'--I feel bound to take care of myself as a +household animal of value, to say nothing of other points." + +Although he was never strong after this long illness, Huxley began +in 1889 to be much better. The first sign of returning vigor was +the eagerness with which he entered into a controversy with +Gladstone. Huxley had always enjoyed a mental battle; and some of +his fiercest tilts were with Gladstone. He even found the cause of +better health in this controversy, and was grateful to the "Grand +Old Man" for making home happy for him. From this time to his +death, Huxley wrote a number of articles on politics, science, and +religion, many of which were published in the volume called +Controverted Questions. The main value of these essays lies in the +fact that Huxley calls upon men to give clear reasons for the faith +which they claim as theirs, and makes, as a friend wrote of him, +hazy thinking and slovenly, half-formed conclusions seem the base +thing they really are. + +The last years of Huxley's life were indeed the longed-for Indian +summer. Away from the noise of London at Eastbourne by the sea, he +spent many happy hours with old-time friends and in his garden, +which was a great joy to him. His large family of sons and +daughters and grandchildren brought much cheer to his last days. +Almost to the end he was working and writing for publication. +Three days before his death he wrote to his old friend, Hooker, +that he didn't feel at all like "sending in his checks" and hoped +to recover. He died very quietly on June 29, 1895. That he met +death with the same calm faith and strength with which he had met +life is indicated by the lines which his wife wrote and which he +requested to be his epitaph:-- + + +Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep; +For still He giveth His beloved sleep, +And if an endless sleep He wills, so best. + + +To attempt an analysis of Huxley's character, unique and bafflingly +complex as it is, is beyond the scope of this sketch; but to give +only the mere facts of his life is to do an injustice to the vivid +personality of the man as it is revealed in his letters. All his +human interest in people and things--pets, and flowers, and family- +-brightens many pages of the two ponderous volumes. Now one reads +of his grief over some backward-going plant, or over some garden +tragedy, as "A lovely clematis in full flower, which I had spent +hours in nailing up, has just died suddenly. I am more +inconsolable than Jonah!" Now one is amused with a nonsense letter +to one of his children, and again with an account of a pet. "I +wish you would write seriously to M----. She is not behaving well +to Oliver. I have seen handsomer kittens, but few more lively, and +energetically destructive. Just now he scratched away at something +M---- says cost 13s. 6d. a yard and reduced more or less of it to +combings. M---- therefore excludes him from the dining-room and +all those opportunities of higher education which he would have in +MY house." Frequently one finds a description of some event, so +vividly done that the mere reading of it seems like a real +experience. An account of Tennyson's burial in Westminster is a +typical bit of description:-- + + +Bright sunshine streamed through the windows of the nave, while the +choir was in half gloom, and as each shaft of light illuminated the +flower-covered bier as it slowly travelled on, one thought of the +bright succession of his works between the darkness before and the +darkness after. I am glad to say that the Royal Society was +represented by four of its chief officers, and nine of the +commonalty, including myself. Tennyson has a right to that, as the +first poet since Lucretius who has understood the drift of science. + + +No parts of the Life and Letters are more enjoyable than those +concerning the "Happy Family," as a friend of Huxley's names his +household. His family of seven children found their father a most +engaging friend and companion. He could tell them wonderful sea +stories and animal stories and could draw fascinating pictures. +His son writes of how when he was ill with scarlet fever he used to +look forward to his father's home-coming. "The solitary days--for +I was the first victim in the family--were very long, and I looked +forward with intense interest to one half-hour after dinner, when +he would come up and draw scenes from the history of a remarkable +bull-terrier and his family that went to the seaside in a most +human and child-delighting manner. I have seldom suffered a +greater disappointment than when, one evening, I fell asleep just +before this fairy half-hour, and lost it out of my life." + +The account of the comradeship between Huxley and his wife reads +like a good old-time romance. He was attracted to her at first by +her "simplicity and directness united with an unusual degree of +cultivation," Huxley's son writes. On her he depended for advice +in his work, and for companionship at home and abroad when +wandering in search of health in Italy and Switzerland. When he +had been separated from her for some time, he wrote, "Nobody, +children or anyone else, can be to me what you are. Ulysses +preferred his old woman to immortality, and this absence has led me +to see that he was as wise in that as in other things." Again he +writes, "Against all trouble (and I have had my share) I weigh a +wife-comrade 'trew and fest' in all emergencies." + +The letters also give one a clear idea of the breadth of Huxley's +interests, particularly of his appreciation of the various forms of +art. Huxley believed strongly in the arts as a refining and +helpful influence in education. He keenly enjoyed good music. +Professor Hewes writes of him that one breaking in upon him in the +afternoon at South Kensington would not infrequently be met "with a +snatch of some melody of Bach's fugue." He also liked good +pictures, and always had among his friends well-known artists, as +Alma-Tadema, Sir Frederick Leighton, and Burne-Jones. He read +poetry widely, and strongly advocated the teaching of poetry in +English schools. As to poetry, his own preferences are +interesting. Wordsworth he considered too discursive; Shelley was +too diffuse; Keats, he liked for pure beauty, Browning for +strength, and Tennyson for his understanding of modern science; but +most frequently of all he read Milton and Shakespeare. + +As to Huxley's appearance, and as to the impression which his +personality made upon others, the description of a friend, Mr. G. +W. Smalley, presents him with striking force. "The square +forehead, the square jaw, the tense lines of the mouth, the deep +flashing dark eyes, the impression of something more than strength +he gave you, an impression of sincerity, of solid force, of +immovability, yet with the gentleness arising from the serene +consciousness of his strength--all this belonged to Huxley and to +him alone. The first glance magnetized his audience. The eyes +were those of one accustomed to command, of one having authority, +and not fearing on occasion to use it. The hair swept carelessly +away from the broad forehead and grew rather long behind, yet the +length did not suggest, as it often does, effeminacy. He was +masculine in everything--look, gesture, speech. Sparing of +gesture, sparing of emphasis, careless of mere rhetorical or +oratorical art, he had nevertheless the secret of the highest art +of all, whether in oratory or whatever else--he had simplicity." + +Simplicity, directness, sincerity,--all these qualities describe +Huxley; but the one attribute which distinguishes him above all +others is love of truth. A love of truth, as the phrase +characterizes Huxley, would necessarily produce a scholarly habit +of mind. It was the zealous search for truth which determined his +method of work. In science, Huxley would "take at second hand +nothing for which he vouched in teaching." Some one reproached him +for wasting time verifying what another had already done. "If that +is his practice," he commented, "his work will never live." The +same motive made him a master of languages. To be able to read at +first hand the writings of other nations, he learned German, +French, Italian, and Greek. One of the chief reasons for learning +to read Greek was to see for himself if Aristotle really did say +that the heart had only three chambers--an error, he discovered, +not of Aristotle, but of the translator. It was, moreover, the +scholar in Huxley which made him impatient of narrow, half-formed, +foggy conclusions. His own work has all the breadth and freedom +and universality of the scholar, but it has, also, a quality +equally distinctive of the scholar, namely, an infinite precision +in the matter of detail. + +If love of truth made Huxley a scholar, it made him, also, a +courageous fighter. Man's first duty, as he saw it, was to seek +the truth; his second was to teach it to others, and, if necessary, +to contend valiantly for it. To fail to teach what you honestly +know to be true, because it may harm your reputation, or even +because it may give pain to others, is cowardice. "I am not +greatly concerned about any reputation," Huxley writes to his wife, +"except that of being entirely honest and straightforward." +Regardless of warnings that the publication of Man's Place in +Nature would ruin his career, Huxley passed on to others what +nature had revealed to him. He was regardless, also, of the +confusion and pain which his view would necessarily bring to those +who had been nourished in old traditions. To stand with a man or +two and to do battle with the world on the score of its old +beliefs, has never been an easy task since the world began. +Certainly it required fearlessness and determination to wrestle +with the prejudices against science in the middle of the nineteenth +century--how much may be gathered from the reading of Darwin's Life +and Letters. The attitude of the times toward science has already +been indicated. One may he allowed to give one more example from +the reported address of a clergyman. "O ye men of science, ye men +of science, leave us our ancestors in paradise, and you may have +yours in Zoological gardens." The war was, for the most part, +between the clergy and the men of science, but it is necessary to +remember that Huxley fought not against Christianity, but against +dogma; that he fought not against the past,--he had great reverence +for the accomplishment of the past,--but against unwillingness to +accept the new truth of the present. + +A scholar of the highest type and a fearless defender of true and +honest thinking, Huxley certainly was: but the quality which gives +meaning to his work, which makes it live, is a certain human +quality due to the fact that Huxley was always keenly alive to the +relation of science to the problems of life. For this reason, he +was not content with the mere acquirement of knowledge; and for +this reason, also, he could not quietly wait until the world should +come to his way of thinking. Much of the time, therefore, which he +would otherwise naturally have spent in research, he spent in +contending for and in endeavoring to popularize the facts of +science. It was this desire to make his ideas prevail that led +Huxley to work for a mastery of the technique of speaking and +writing. He hated both, but taught himself to do both well. The +end of all his infinite pains about his writing was not because +style for its own sake is worth while, but because he saw that the +only way to win men to a consideration of his message was to make +it perfectly clear and attractive to them. Huxley's message to the +people was that happiness, usefulness, and even material prosperity +depend upon an understanding of the laws of nature. He also taught +that a knowledge of the facts of science is the soundest basis for +moral law; that a clear sense of the penalties which Nature +inflicts for disobedience of her laws must eventually be the +greatest force for the purification of life. If he was to be +remembered, therefore, he desired that he should be remembered +primarily as one who had helped the people "to think truly and to +live rightly." Huxley's writing is, then, something more than a +scholarly exposition of abstruse matter; for it has been further +devoted to the increasing of man's capacity for usefulness, and to +the betterment of his life here on earth. + + +II + +SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + + +From the point of view of subject-matter, structure, and style, +Huxley's essays are admirably adapted to the uses of the student in +English. The themes of the essays are two, education and science. +In these two subjects Huxley earnestly sought to arouse interest +and to impart knowledge, because he believed that intelligence in +these matters is essential for the advancement of the race in +strength and morality. Both subjects, therefore, should be +valuable to the student. In education, certainly, he should be +interested, since it is his main occupation, if not his chief +concern. Essays like A Liberal Education and The Principal +Subjects of Education may suggest to him the meaning of all his +work, and may suggest, also, the things which it would be well for +him to know; and, even more, a consideration of these subjects may +arouse him to a greater interest and responsibility than he usually +assumes toward his own mental equipment. Of greater interest +probably will be the subjects which deal with nature; for the ways +of nature are more nearly within the range of his real concerns +than are the wherefores of study. The story of the formation of a +piece of chalk, the substance which lies at the basis of all life, +the habits of sea animals, are all subjects the nature of which is +akin to his own eager interest in the world. + +Undoubtedly the subjects about which Huxley writes will "appeal" to +the student; but it is in analysis that the real discipline lies. +For analysis Huxley's essays are excellent. They illustrate "the +clear power of exposition," and such power is, as Huxley wrote to +Tyndall, the one quality the people want,--exposition "so clear +that they may think they understand even if they don't." Huxley +obtains that perfect clearness in his own work by simple +definition, by keeping steadily before his audience his intention, +and by making plain throughout his lecture a well-defined organic +structure. No X-ray machine is needful to make the skeleton +visible; it stands forth with the parts all nicely related and +compactly joined. In reference to structure, his son and +biographer writes, "He loved to visualize his object clearly. The +framework of what he wished to say would always be drawn out +first." Professor Ray Lankester also mentions Huxley's love of +form. "He deals with form not only as a mechanical engineer IN +PARTIBUS (Huxley's own description of himself), but also as an +artist, a born lover of form, a character which others recognize in +him though he does not himself set it down in his analysis." +Huxley's own account of his efforts to shape his work is +suggestive. "The fact is that I have a great love and respect for +my native tongue, and take great pains to use it properly. +Sometimes I write essays half-a-dozen times before I can get them +into proper shape; and I believe I become more fastidious as I grow +older." And, indeed, there is a marked difference in firmness of +structure between the earlier essays, such as On the Educational +Value of the Natural History Sciences, written, as Huxley +acknowledges, in great haste, and the later essays, such as A +Liberal Education and The Method of Scientific Investigation. To +trace and to define this difference will be most helpful to the +student who is building up a knowledge of structure for his own +use. + +According to Huxley's biographer in the Life and Letters of Thomas +Henry Huxley, the essays which represent him at his best are those +published in 1868. They are A Piece of Chalk, A Liberal Education, +and On the Physical Basis of Life. In connection with the comment +on these essays is the following quotation which gives one +interesting information as to Huxley's method of obtaining a clear +style:-- + + +This lecture on A Piece of Chalk together with two others delivered +this year, seems to me to mark the maturing of his style into that +mastery of clear expression for which he deliberately labored, the +saying exactly what he meant, neither too much nor too little, +without confusion and without obscurity. Have something to say, +and say it, was the Duke of Wellington's theory of style; Huxley's +was to say that which has to be said in such language that you can +stand cross-examination on each word. Be clear, though you may be +convicted of error. If you are clearly wrong, you will run up +against a fact sometime and get set right. If you shuffle with +your subject, and study chiefly to use language which will give a +loophole of escape either way, there is no hope for you. + +This was the secret of his lucidity. In no one could Buffon's +aphorism on style find a better illustration, Le style c'est +l'homme meme. In him science and literature, too often divorced, +were closely united; and literature owes him a debt for importing +into it so much of the highest scientific habit of mind; for +showing that truthfulness need not be bald, and that real power +lies more in exact accuracy than in luxuriance of diction. + + +Huxley's own theory as to how clearness is to be obtained gets at +the root of the matter. "For my part, I venture to doubt the +wisdom of attempting to mould one's style by any other process than +that of striving after the clear and forcible expression of +definite conceptions; in which process the Glassian precept, first +catch your definite conception, is probably the most difficult to +obey." + +Perfect clearness, above every other quality of style, certainly is +characteristic of Huxley; but clearness alone does not make +subject-matter literature. In addition to this quality, Huxley's +writing wins the reader by the racy diction, the homely +illustration, the plain, honest phrasing. All these and other +qualities bring one into an intimate relationship with his subject. +A man of vast technical learning, he is still so interested in the +relation of his facts to the problems of men that he is always able +to infuse life into the driest of subjects, in other words, to +HUMANIZE his knowledge; and in the estimation of Matthew Arnold, +this is the true work of the scholar, the highest mission of style. + + +III + +SUGGESTED STUDIES IN SUBJECT-MATTER, STRUCTURE, AND STYLE + + +Although fully realizing that the questions here given are only +such as are generally used everywhere by instructors in English, +the editor has, nevertheless, included them with the hope that some +one may find them helpful. + +The studies given include a few general questions and suggestions +on subject-matter, structure, and style. The questions on +structure are based on an analysis of the whole composition and of +the paragraph; those on style are based on a study of sentences and +words. Such a division of material may seem unwarranted; for, it +may be urged, firmness of structure depends, to a certain extent, +upon sentence-form and words; and clearness of style, to a large +extent, upon the form of the paragraph and whole composition. The +two, certainly, cannot be in justice separated; and especially is +it true, more deeply true than the average student can be brought +to believe, that structure, "MIND, in style" as Pater phrases it, +primarily determines not only clearness, but also such qualities of +style as reserve, refinement, and simple Doric beauty. Since, +however, structure is more obviously associated with the larger +groups, and style with the smaller, the questions have been +arranged according to this division. + + +I. Suggestions for the Study of Subject-Matter. + + +1. To whom does Huxley address the essay? + +2. Can you see any adaptation of his material to his audience? + +3. How would A Piece of Chalk be differently presented if given +before a science club? + +4. Does Huxley make his subject interesting? If so, how does he +accomplish this? + +5. Is the personality of Huxley suggested by the essays? See Life +and Letters, vol. ii, p. 293. + + +II. Suggestions for the Study of Structure. + + +A. Analysis of the whole composition. + +1. State in one complete sentence the theme of the essay. + +2. Analyze the essay for the logical development of the thought. + +a. Questions on the Introduction. + In the introduction, how does the author approach his material? + Does he give the main points of the essay? + Does he give his reasons for writing? + Does he narrow his subject to one point of view? + Is the introduction a digression? + +b. Questions on the Body. + Can you find large groups of thought? + Are these groups closely related to the theme and to each other? + Do you find any digressions? + Is the method used in developing the groups inductive or deductive? + Is the method different in different groups? + Are the groups arranged for good emphasis in the whole composition? + +c. Questions on the Conclusion. + How does the author conclude the essay? + Does the conclusion sum up the points of the essay? + Are any new points suggested? + Is the thought of the whole essay stated? + Do you consider it a strong conclusion? + +3. Make out an outline which shall picture the skeleton of the +essay studied. In making the outline express the topics in the +form of complete statements, phrase the thought for clear sequence, +and be careful about such matters as spacing and punctuation. + +B. Analysis of paragraph structure. + +1. Can a paragraph be analyzed in the same manner as the whole +composition? + +2. Can you express the thought of each paragraph in a complete +sentence? + +3. Can you find different points presented in the paragraph +developing the paragraph topic, as the large groups of the whole +composition develop the theme? + +4. Are the paragraphs closely related, and how are they bound +together? + +5. Can any of the paragraphs be combined to advantage? + +6. Read from Barrett Wendell's English Composition the chapter on +paragraphs. Are Huxley's paragraphs constructed in accordance with +the principles given in this chapter? + +7. Is the paragraph type varied? For paragraph types, see Scott +and Denny's Paragraph Writing. + +C. Comparative study of the structure of the essay. + +1. Do you find any difference between Huxley's earlier and later +essays as regards the structure of the whole, or the structure of +the paragraph? + +2. Which essay seems to you to be most successful in structure? + +3. Has the character of the audience any influence upon the +structure of the essays? + +4. Compare the structure of one of Huxley's essays with that of +some other essay recently studied. + +5. Has the nature of the material any influence upon the structure +of the essay? + + +III. Suggestions for the Study of Style. + + +A. Exactly what do you mean by style? + +B. Questions on sentence structure. + +1. From any given essay, group together sentences which are long, +short, loose, periodic, balanced, simple, compound; note those +peculiar, for any reason, to Huxley. + +2. Stevenson says, "The one rule is to be infinitely various; to +interest, to disappoint, to surprise and still to gratify; to be +ever changing, as it were, the stitch, and yet still to give the +effect of ingenious neatness." + +Do Huxley's sentences conform to Stevenson's rule? Compare +Huxley's sentences with Stevenson's for variety in form. Is there +any reason for the difference between the form of the two writers? + +3. Does this quotation from Pater's essay on Style describe +Huxley's sentences? "The blithe, crisp sentence, decisive as a +child's expression of its needs, may alternate with the long- +contending, victoriously intricate sentence; the sentence, born +with the integrity of a single word, relieving the sort of sentence +in which, if you look closely, you can see contrivance, much +adjustment, to bring a highly qualified matter into compass at one +view." + +4. How do Huxley's sentences compare with those of Ruskin, or with +those of any author recently studied? + +5. Are Huxley's sentences musical? How does an author make his +sentences musical? + +C. Questions on words. + +1. Do you find evidence of exactness, a quality which Huxley said +he labored for? + +2. Are the words general or specific in character? + +3. How does Huxley make his subject-matter attractive? + +4. From what sources does Huxley derive his words? Are they every- +day words, or more scholarly in character? + +5. Do you find any figures? Are these mainly ornamental or do they +re-enforce the thought? + +8. Are there many allusions and quotations? Can you easily +recognize the source? + +7. Pater says in his essay on Style that the literary artist +"begets a vocabulary faithful to the colouring of his own spirit, +and in the strictest sense original." Do you find that Huxley's +vocabulary suggests the man? + +8. Does Huxley seem to search for "the smooth, or winsome, or +forcible word, as such, or quite simply and honestly, for the +word's adjustment to its meaning"? + +9. Make out a list of the words and proper names in any given essay +which are not familiar to you; write out the explanation of these +in the form of notes giving any information which is interesting +and relevant. + +D. General questions on style. + +1. How is Huxley's style adapted to the subject-matter? + +2. Can you explain the difference in style of the different essays +by the difference in purpose? + +3. Compare Huxley's way of saying things with some other author's +way of saying things. + +4. Huxley says of his essays to workingmen, "I only wish I had had +the sense to anticipate the run these have had here and abroad, and +I would have revised them properly. As they stand they are +terribily in the rough, from a literary point of view." + +Do you find evidences of roughness? + + + +THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY [1] + + +And when I consider, in one view, the many things . . . which I +have upon my hands, I feel the burlesque of being employed in this +manner at my time of life. But, in another view, and taking in all +circumstances, these things, as trifling as they may appear, no +less than things of greater importance, seem to be put upon me to +do.--Bishop Butler to the Duchess of Somerset. + + +The "many things" to which the Duchess's correspondent here refers +are the repairs and improvements of the episcopal seat at Auckland. +I doubt if the great apologist, greater in nothing than in the +simple dignity of his character, would have considered the writing +an account of himself as a thing which could be put upon him to do +whatever circumstances might be taken in. But the good bishop +lived in an age when a man might write books and yet be permitted +to keep his private existence to himself; in the pre-Boswellian [2] +epoch, when the germ of the photographer lay concealed in the +distant future, and the interviewer who pervades our age was an +unforeseen, indeed unimaginable, birth of time. + +At present, the most convinced believer in the aphorism "Bene qui +latuit, bene vixit,"[3] is not always able to act up to it. An +importunate person informs him that his portrait is about to be +published and will be accompanied by a biography which the +importunate person proposes to write. The sufferer knows what that +means; either he undertakes to revise the "biography" or he does +not. In the former case, he makes himself responsible; in the +latter, he allows the publication of a mass of more or less fulsome +inaccuracies for which he will be held responsible by those who are +familiar with the prevalent art of self-advertisement. On the +whole, it may be better to get over the "burlesque of being +employed in this manner" and do the thing himself. + +It was by reflections of this kind that, some years ago, I was led +to write and permit the publication of the subjoined sketch. + + +I was born about eight o'clock in the morning on the 4th of May, +1825, at Ealing, which was, at that time, as quiet a little country +village as could be found within a half-a-dozen miles of Hyde Park +Corner. Now it is a suburb of London with, I believe, 30,000 +inhabitants. My father was one of the masters in a large semi- +public school which at one time had a high reputation. I am not +aware that any portents preceded my arrival in this world, but, in +my childhood, I remember hearing a traditional account of the +manner in which I lost the chance of an endowment of great +practical value. The windows of my mother's room were open, in +consequence of the unusual warmth of the weather. For the same +reason, probably, a neighbouring beehive had swarmed, and the new +colony, pitching on the window-sill, was making its way into the +room when the horrified nurse shut down the sash. If that well- +meaning woman had only abstained from her ill-timed interference, +the swarm might have settled on my lips, and I should have been +endowed with that mellifluous eloquence which, in this country, +leads far more surely than worth, capacity, or honest work, to the +highest places in Church and State. But the opportunity was lost, +and I have been obliged to content myself through life with saying +what I mean in the plainest of plain language, than which, I +suppose, there is no habit more ruinous to a man's prospects of +advancement. + +Why I was christened Thomas Henry I do not know; but it is a +curious chance that my parents should have fixed for my usual +denomination upon the name of that particular Apostle with whom I +have always felt most sympathy. Physically and mentally I am the +son of my mother so completely--even down to peculiar movements of +the hands, which made their appearance in me as I reached the age +she had when I noticed them--that I can hardly find any trace of my +father in myself, except an inborn faculty for drawing, which +unfortunately, in my case, has never been cultivated, a hot temper, +and that amount of tenacity of purpose which unfriendly observers +sometimes call obstinacy. + +My mother was a slender brunette, of an emotional and energetic +temperament, and possessed of the most piercing black eyes I ever +saw in a woman's head. With no more education than other women of +the middle classes in her day, she had an excellent mental +capacity. Her most distinguishing characteristic, however, was +rapidity of thought. If one ventured to suggest she had not taken +much time to arrive at any conclusion, she would say, "I cannot +help it, things flash across me." That peculiarity has been passed +on to me in full strength; it has often stood me in good stead; it +has sometimes played me sad tricks, and it has always been a +danger. But, after all, if my time were to come over again, there +is nothing I would less willingly part with than my inheritance of +mother wit. + +I have next to nothing to say about my childhood. In later years +my mother, looking at me almost reproachfully, would sometimes say, +"Ah! you were such a pretty boy!" whence I had no difficulty in +concluding that I had not fulfilled my early promise in the matter +of looks. In fact, I have a distinct recollection of certain curls +of which I was vain, and of a conviction that I closely resembled +that handsome, courtly gentleman, Sir Herbert Oakley, who was vicar +of our parish, and who was as a god to us country folk, because he +was occasionally visited by the then Prince George of Cambridge. [4] +I remember turning my pinafore wrong side forwards in order to +represent a surplice, and preaching to my mother's maids in the +kitchen as nearly as possible in Sir Herbert's manner one Sunday +morning when the rest of the family were at church. That is the +earliest indication I can call to mind of the strong clerical +affinities which my friend Mr. Herbert Spencer [5] has always +ascribed to me, though I fancy they have for the most part remained +in a latent state. + +My regular school training was of the briefest, perhaps +fortunately, for though my way of life has made me acquainted with +all sorts and conditions of men, from the highest to the lowest, I +deliberately affirm that the society I fell into at school was the +worst I have ever known. We boys were average lads, with much the +same inherent capacity for good and evil as any others; but the +people who were set over us cared about as much for our +intellectual and moral welfare as if they were baby-farmers. We +were left to the operation of the struggle for existence among +ourselves, and bullying was the least of the ill practices current +among us. Almost the only cheerful reminiscence in connection with +the place which arises in my mind is that of a battle I had with +one of my classmates, who had bullied me until I could stand it no +longer. I was a very slight lad, but there was a wild-cat element +in me which, when roused, made up for lack of weight, and I licked +my adversary effectually. However, one of my first experiences of +the extremely rough-and-ready nature of justice, as exhibited by +the course of things in general, arose out of the fact that I--the +victor--had a black eye, while he--the vanquished--had none, so +that I got into disgrace and he did not. We made it up, and +thereafter I was unmolested. One of the greatest shocks I ever +received in my life was to be told a dozen years afterwards by the +groom who brought me my horse in a stable-yard in Sydney that he +was my quondam antagonist. He had a long story of family +misfortune to account for his position, but at that time it was +necessary to deal very cautiously with mysterious strangers in New +South Wales, and on inquiry I found that the unfortunate young man +had not only been "sent out," but had undergone more than one +colonial conviction. + +As I grew older, my great desire was to be a mechanical engineer, +but the fates were against this and, while very young, I commenced +the study of medicine under a medical brother-in-law. But, though +the Institute of Mechanical Engineers would certainly not own me, I +am not sure that I have not all along been a sort of mechanical +engineer in partibus infidelium.[6] I am now occasionally horrified +to think how very little I ever knew or cared about medicine as the +art of healing. The only part of my professional course which +really and deeply interested me was physiology, which is the +mechanical engineering of living machines; and, notwithstanding +that natural science has been my proper business, I am afraid there +is very little of the genuine naturalist in me. I never collected +anything, and species work was always a burden to me; what I cared +for was the architectural and engineering part of the business, the +working out of the wonderful unity of plan in the thousands and +thousands of diverse living constructions, and the modifications of +similar apparatuses to serve diverse ends. The extraordinary +attraction I felt towards the study of the intricacies of living +structure nearly proved fatal to me at the outset. I was a mere +boy--I think between thirteen and fourteen years of age--when I was +taken by some older student friends of mine to the first post- +mortem examination I ever attended. All my life I have been most +unfortunately sensitive to the disagreeables which attend +anatomical pursuits, but on this occasion my curiosity overpowered +all other feelings, and I spent two or three hours in gratifying +it. I did not cut myself, and none of the ordinary symptoms of +dissection-poison supervened, but poisoned I was somehow, and I +remember sinking into a strange state of apathy. By way of a last +chance, I was sent to the care of some good, kind people, friends +of my father's, who lived in a farmhouse in the heart of +Warwickshire. I remember staggering from my bed to the window on +the bright spring morning after my arrival, and throwing open the +casement. Life seemed to come back on the wings of the breeze, and +to this day the faint odor of wood-smoke, like that which floated +across the farm-yard in the early morning, is as good to me as the +"sweet south upon a bed of violets."[7] I soon recovered, but for +years I suffered from occasional paroxysms of internal pain, and +from that time my constant friend, hypochondriacal dyspepsia, +commenced his half century of co-tenancy of my fleshly tabernacle. + +Looking back on my "Lehrjahre,"[8] I am sorry to say that I do not +think that any account of my doings as a student would tend to +edification. In fact, I should distinctly warn ingenuous youth to +avoid imitating my example. I worked extremely hard when it +pleased me, and when it did not--which was a very frequent case--I +was extremely idle (unless making caricatures of one's pastors and +masters is to be called a branch of industry), or else wasted my +energies in wrong directions. I read everything I could lay hands +upon, including novels, and took up all sorts of pursuits to drop +them again quite as speedily. No doubt it was very largely my own +fault, but the only instruction from which I ever obtained the +proper effect of education was that which I received from Mr. +Wharton Jones, who was the lecturer on physiology at the Charing +Cross School of Medicine. The extent and precision of his +knowledge impressed me greatly, and the severe exactness of his +method of lecturing was quite to my taste. I do not know that I +have ever felt so much respect for anybody as a teacher before or +since. I worked hard to obtain his approbation, and he was +extremely kind and helpful to the youngster who, I am afraid, took +up more of his time than he had any right to do. It was he who +suggested the publication of my first scientific paper--a very +little one--in the Medical Gazette of 1845, and most kindly +corrected the literary faults which abounded in it, short as it +was; for at that time, and for many years afterwards, I detested +the trouble of writing, and would take no pains over it. + +It was in the early spring of 1846, that, having finished my +obligatory medical studies and passed the first M. D. examination +at the London University,--though I was still too young to qualify +at the College of Surgeons,--I was talking to a fellow-student (the +present eminent physician, Sir Joseph Fayrer), and wondering what I +should do to meet the imperative necessity for earning my own +bread, when my friend suggested that I should write to Sir William +Burnett, at that time Director-General for the Medical Service of +the Navy, for an appointment. I thought this rather a strong thing +to do, as Sir William was personally unknown to me, but my cheery +friend would not listen to my scruples, so I went to my lodgings +and wrote the best letter I could devise. A few days afterwards I +received the usual official circular acknowledgment, but at the +bottom there was written an instruction to call at Somerset House +on such a day. I thought that looked like business, so at the +appointed time I called and sent in my card, while I waited in Sir +William's ante-room. He was a tall, shrewd-looking old gentleman, +with a broad Scotch accent--and I think I see him now as he entered +with my card in his hand. The first thing he did was to return it, +with the frugal reminder that I should probably find it useful on +some other occasion. The second was to ask whether I was an +Irishman. I suppose the air of modesty about my appeal must have +struck him. I satisfied the Director-General that I was English to +the backbone, and he made some inquiries as to my student career, +finally desiring me to hold myself ready for examination. Having +passed this, I was in Her Majesty's Service, and entered on the +books of Nelson's [9] old ship, the Victory, for duty at Haslar +Hospital, about a couple of months after I made my application. + +My official chief at Haslar was a very remarkable person, the late +Sir John Richardson, an excellent naturalist, and far-famed as an +indomitable Arctic traveller. He was a silent, reserved man, +outside the circle of his family and intimates; and, having a full +share of youthful vanity, I was extremely disgusted to find that +"Old John," as we irreverent youngsters called him, took not the +slightest notice of my worshipful self either the first time I +attended him, as it was my duty to do, or for some weeks +afterwards. I am afraid to think of the lengths to which my tongue +may have run on the subject of the churlishness of the chief, who +was, in truth, one of the kindest-hearted and most considerate of +men. But one day, as I was crossing the hospital square, Sir John +stopped me, and heaped coals of fire on my head by telling me that +he had tried to get me one of the resident appointments, much +coveted by the assistant surgeons, but that the Admiralty had put +in another man. "However," said he, "I mean to keep you here till +I can get you something you will like," and turned upon his heel +without waiting for the thanks I stammered out. That explained how +it was I had not been packed off to the West Coast of Africa like +some of my juniors, and why, eventually, I remained altogether +seven months at Haslar. + +After a long interval, during which "Old John" ignored my existence +almost as completely as before, he stopped me again as we met in a +casual way, and describing the service on which the Rattlesnake was +likely to be employed, said that Captain Owen Stanley, who was to +command the ship, had asked him to recommend an assistant surgeon +who knew something of science; would I like that? Of course I +jumped at the offer. "Very well, I give you leave; go to London at +once and see Captain Stanley." I went, saw my future commander, +who was very civil to me, and promised to ask that I should be +appointed to his ship, as in due time I was. It is a singular +thing that, during the few months of my stay at Haslar, I had among +my messmates two future Directors-General of the Medical Service of +the Navy (Sir Alexander Armstrong and Sir John Watt-Reid), with the +present President of the College of Physicians and my kindest of +doctors, Sir Andrew Clark. + +Life on board Her Majesty's ship in those days was a very different +affair from what it is now, and ours was exceptionally rough, as we +were often many months without receiving letters or seeing any +civilised people but ourselves. In exchange, we had the interest +of being about the last voyagers, I suppose, to whom it could be +possible to meet with people who knew nothing of fire-arms--as we +did on the south coast of New Guinea--and of making acquaintance +with a variety of interesting savage and semi-civilised people. +But, apart from experience of this kind and the opportunities +offered for scientific work, to me, personally, the cruise was +extremely valuable. It was good for me to live under sharp +discipline; to be down on the realities of existence by living on +bare necessaries; to find out how extremely well worth living life +seemed to be when one woke up from a night's rest on a soft plank, +with the sky for canopy and cocoa and weevilly biscuit the sole +prospect for breakfast; and, more especially, to learn to work for +the sake of what I got for myself out of it, even if it all went to +the bottom and I along with it. My brother officers were as good +fellows as sailors ought to be and generally are, but, naturally, +they neither knew nor cared anything about my pursuits, nor +understood why I should be so zealous in pursuit of the objects +which my friends, the middies,[10] christened "Buffons," after the +title conspicuous on a volume of the Suites a Buffon,[11] which +stood on my shelf in the chart room. + +During the four years of our absence, I sent home communication +after communication to the "Linnean Society,"[12] with the same +result as that obtained by Noah when he sent the raven out of his ark. +Tired at last of hearing nothing about them, I determined to do or +die, and in 1849 I drew up a more elaborate paper and forwarded it +to the Royal Society.[13] This was my dove, if I had only known it. +But owing to the movements of the ship, I heard nothing of that +either until my return to England in the latter end of the year +1850, when I found that it was printed and published, and that a +huge packet of separate copies awaited me. When I hear some of my +young friends complain of want of sympathy and encouragement, I am +inclined to think that my naval life was not the least valuable +part of my education. + +Three years after my return were occupied by a battle between my +scientific friends on the one hand and the Admiralty on the other, +as to whether the latter ought, or ought not, to act up to the +spirit of a pledge they had given to encourage officers who had +done scientific work by contributing to the expense of publishing +mine. At last the Admiralty, getting tired, I suppose, cut short +the discussion by ordering me to join a ship, which thing I +declined to do, and as Rastignac,[14] in the Pere Goriot [15] says +to Paris, I said to London "a nous deux." I desired to obtain a +Professorship of either Physiology or Comparative Anatomy, and as +vacancies occurred I applied, but in vain. My friend, Professor +Tyndall,[16] and I were candidates at the same time, he for the Chair +of Physics and I for that of Natural History in the University of +Toronto, which, fortunately, as it turned out, would not look at +either of us. I say fortunately, not from any lack of respect for +Toronto, but because I soon made up my mind that London was the +place for me, and hence I have steadily declined the inducements to +leave it, which have at various times been offered. At last, in +1854, on the translation of my warm friend Edward Forbes, to +Edinburgh, Sir Henry de la Beche, the Director-General of the +Geological Survey, offered me the post Forbes vacated of +Paleontologist and Lecturer on Natural History. I refused the +former point blank, and accepted the latter only provisionally, +telling Sir Henry that I did not care for fossils, and that I +should give up Natural History as soon as I could get a +physiological post. But I held the office for thirty-one years, +and a large part of my work has been paleontological. + +At that time I disliked public speaking, and had a firm conviction +that I should break down every time I opened my mouth. I believe I +had every fault a speaker could have (except talking at random or +indulging in rhetoric), when I spoke to the first important +audience I ever addressed, on a Friday evening at the Royal +Institution, in 1852. Yet, I must confess to having been guilty, +malgre moi, of as much public speaking as most of my +contemporaries, and for the last ten years it ceased to be so much +of a bugbear to me. I used to pity myself for having to go through +this training, but I am now more disposed to compassionate the +unfortunate audiences, especially my ever friendly hearers at the +Royal Institution, who were the subjects of my oratorical +experiments. + +The last thing that it would be proper for me to do would be to +speak of the work of my life, or to say at the end of the day +whether I think I have earned my wages or not. Men are said to be +partial judges of themselves. Young men may be, I doubt if old men +are. Life seems terribly foreshortened as they look back and the +mountain they set themselves to climb in youth turns out to be a +mere spur of immeasurably higher ranges when, by failing breath, +they reach the top. But if I may speak of the objects I have had +more or less definitely in view since I began the ascent of my +hillock, they are briefly these: To promote the increase of natural +knowledge and to forward the application of scientific methods of +investigation to all the problems of life to the best of my +ability, in the conviction which has grown with my growth and +strengthened with my strength, that there is no alleviation for the +sufferings of mankind except veracity of thought and of action, and +the resolute facing of the world as it is when the garment of make- +believe by which pious hands have hidden its uglier features is +stripped off. + +It is with this intent that I have subordinated any reasonable, or +unreasonable, ambition for scientific fame which I may have +permitted myself to entertain to other ends; to the popularization +of science; to the development and organisation of scientific +education; to the endless series of battles and skirmishes over +evolution; and to untiring opposition to that ecclesiastical +spirit,[17] that clericalism, which in England, as everywhere else, +and to whatever denomination it may belong, is the deadly enemy of +science. + +In striving for the attainment of these objects, I have been but +one among many, and I shall be well content to be remembered, or +even not remembered, as such. Circumstances, among which I am +proud to reckon the devoted kindness of many friends, have led to +my occupation of various prominent positions, among which the +Presidency of the Royal Society is the highest. It would be mock +modesty on my part, with these and other scientific honours which +have been bestowed upon me, to pretend that I have not succeeded in +the career which I have followed, rather because I was driven into +it than of my own free will; but I am afraid I should not count +even these things as marks of success if I could not hope that I +had somewhat helped that movement of opinion which has been called +the New Reformation.[18] + + + +ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE [19] + + +This time two hundred years ago--in the beginning of January, 1666-- +those of our forefathers who inhabited this great and ancient +city, took breath between the shocks of two fearful calamities: one +not quite past, although its fury had abated; the other to come. + +Within a few yards of the very spot [20] on which we are assembled, +so the tradition runs, that painful and deadly malady, the plague, +appeared in the latter months of 1664; and, though no new visitor, +smote the people of England, and especially of her capital, with a +violence unknown before, in the course of the following year. The +hand of a master has pictured what happened in those dismal months; +and in that truest of fictions, The History of the Plague Year, +Defoe [21] shows death, with every accompaniment of pain and terror, +stalking through the narrow streets of old London, and changing +their busy hum into a silence broken only by the wailing of the +mourners of fifty thousand dead; by the woful denunciations and mad +prayers of fanatics; and by the madder yells of despairing +profligates. + +But, about this time in 1666, the death-rate had sunk to nearly its +ordinary amount; a case of plague occurred only here and there, and +the richer citizens who had flown from the pest had returned to +their dwellings. The remnant of the people began to toil at the +accustomed round of duty, or of pleasure; and the stream of city +life bid fair to flow back along its old bed, with renewed and +uninterrupted vigour. + +The newly kindled hope was deceitful. The great plague, indeed, +returned no more; but what it had done for the Londoners, the great +fire, which broke out in the autumn of 1666, did for London; and, +in September of that year, a heap of ashes and the indestructible +energy of the people were all that remained of the glory of five- +sixths of the city within the walls. + + +Our forefathers had their own ways of accounting for each of these +calamities. They submitted to the plague in humility and in +penitence, for they believed it to be the judgment of God. But, +towards the fire they were furiously indignant, interpreting it as +the effect of the malice of man,--as the work of the Republicans, +or of the Papists, according as their prepossessions ran in favour +of loyalty or of Puritanism. + +It would, I fancy, have fared but ill with one who, standing where +I now stand, in what was then a thickly peopled and fashionable +part of London, should have broached to our ancestors the doctrine +which I now propound to you--that all their hypotheses were alike +wrong; that the plague was no more, in their sense, Divine +judgment, than the fire was the work of any political, or of any +religious sect; but that they were themselves the authors of both +plague and fire, and that they must look to themselves to prevent +the recurrence of calamities, to all appearance so peculiarly +beyond the reach of human control--so evidently the result of the +wrath of God, or of the craft and subtlety of an enemy. + +And one may picture to one's self how harmoniously the holy cursing +of the Puritan of that day would have chimed in with the unholy +cursing and the crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys,[22] and +with the revilings of the political fanatics, if my imaginary plain +dealer had gone on to say that, if the return of such misfortunes +were ever rendered impossible, it would not be in virtue of the +victory of the faith of Laud,[23] or of that of Milton; and, as +little, by the triumph of republicanism, as by that of monarchy. +But that the one thing needful for compassing this end was, that +the people of England should second the efforts of an insignificant +corporation, the establishment of which, a few years before the +epoch of the great plague and the great fire, had been as little +noticed, as they were conspicuous. + + +Some twenty years before the outbreak of the plague a few calm and +thoughtful students banded themselves together for the purpose, as +they phrased it, of "improving natural knowledge." The ends they +proposed to attain cannot be stated more clearly than in the words +of one of the founders of the organisation:-- + +"Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state +affairs) to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, and +such as related thereunto:--as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, +Astronomy, Navigation, Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, +and Natural Experiments; with the state of these studies and their +cultivation at home and abroad. We then discoursed of the +circulation of the blood, the valves in the veins, the venae +lacteae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican hypothesis, the +nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of Jupiter, the oval +shape (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots on the sun and its +turning on its own axis, the inequalities and selenography [24] of the +moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, the improvement of +telescopes and grinding of glasses for that purpose, the weight of +air, the possibility or impossibility of vacuities and nature's +abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment [25] in quicksilver, +the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of acceleration therein, +with divers other things of like nature, some of which were then +but new discoveries, and others not so generally known and embraced +as now they are; with other things appertaining to what hath been +called the New Philosophy, which from the times of Galileo at +Florence, and Sir Francis Bacon [26] (Lord Verulam) in England, hath +been much cultivated in Italy, France, Germany, and other parts +abroad, as well as with us in England." + +The learned Dr. Wallis,[27] writing in 1696, narrates in these words, +what happened half a century before, or about 1645. The associates +met at Oxford, in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to +become a bishop; and subsequently coming together in London, they +attracted the notice of the king. And it is a strange evidence of +the taste for knowledge which the most obviously worthless of the +Stuarts shared with his father and grandfather, that Charles the +Second was not content with saying witty things about his +philosophers, but did wise things with regard to them. For he not +only bestowed upon them such attention as he could spare from his +poodles and his mistresses, but, being in his usual state of +impecuniosity, begged for them of the Duke of Ormond; and, that +step being without effect, gave them Chelsea College, a charter, +and a mace: crowning his favours in the best way they could be +crowned, by burdening them no further with royal patronage or state +interference. + +Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, studious of the "New +Philosophy," [28] who met in one another's lodgings in Oxford or in +London, in the middle of the seventeenth century, grew in numerical +and in real strength, until, in its latter part, the "Royal Society +for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge" had already become +famous, and had acquired a claim upon the veneration of Englishmen, +which it has ever since retained, as the principal focus of +scientific activity in our islands, and the chief champion of the +cause it was formed to support. + +It was by the aid of the Royal Society [29] that Newton [30] +published his Principia. If all the books in the world, except +the Philosophical Transactions, [31] were destroyed, it is safe to +say that the foundations of physical science would remain unshaken, +and that the vast intellectual progress of the last two centuries +would be largely, though incompletely, recorded. Nor have any signs +of halting or of decrepitude manifested themselves in our own times. +As in Dr. Wallis's days, so in these, "our business is, precluding +theology and state affairs, to discourse and consider of +philosophical enquiries." But our "Mathematick" is one which +Newton would have to go to school to learn; our "Staticks, +Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural Experiments" +constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, a glimpse at +which would compensate Galileo [32] for the doings of a score of +inquisitorial cardinals; our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced +such infinite varieties of beings, have laid open such new worlds +in time and space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such +complex problems, that the eyes of Vesalius [33] and of Harvey [34] +might be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of +their grain of mustard seed. + +The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, forced upon +one's notice, nowadays, that all this marvellous intellectual +growth has a no less wonderful expression in practical life; and +that, in this respect, if in no other, the movement symbolised by +the progress of the Royal Society stands without a parallel +in the history of mankind. + +A series of volumes as bulky as the "Transactions of the Royal +Society" might possibly be filled with the subtle speculations [35] +of the Schoolmen;[36] not improbably, the obtaining a mastery over +the products of mediaeval thought might necessitate an even greater +expenditure of time and of energy than the acquirement of the "New +Philosophy"; but though such work engrossed the best intellects of +Europe for a longer time than has elapsed since the great fire, its +effects were "writ in water,"[37] so far as our social state is +concerned. + +On the other hand, if the noble first President of the Royal +Society could revisit the upper air and once more gladden his eyes +with a sight of the familiar mace, he would find himself in the +midst of a material civilisation more different from that of his +day, than that of the seventeenth was from that of the first +century. And if Lord Brouncker's [38] native sagacity had not +deserted his ghost, he would need no long reflection to discover +that all these great ships, these railways, these telegraphs, these +factories, these printing-presses, without which the whole fabric +of modern English society would collapse into a mass of stagnant +and starving pauperism,--that all these pillars of our State are +but the ripples and the bubbles upon the surface of that great +spiritual stream, the springs of which only, he and his fellows +were privileged to see; and seeing, to recognise as that which it +behoved them above all things to keep pure and undefiled. + +It may not be too great a flight of imagination to conceive our +noble revenant [39] not forgetful of the great troubles of his own day, +and anxious to know how often London had been burned down since his +time and how often the plague had carried off its thousands. He +would have to learn that, although London contains tenfold the +inflammable matter that it did in 1666; though, not content with +filling our rooms with woodwork and light draperies, we must needs +lead inflammable and explosive gases into every corner of our +streets and houses, we never allow even a street to burn down. And +if he asked how this had come about, we should have to explain that +the improvement of natural knowledge has furnished us with dozens +of machines for throwing water upon fires, any one of which would +have furnished the ingenious Mr. Hooke, the first "curator and +experimenter" of the Royal Society, with ample materials for +discourse before half a dozen meetings of that body; and that, to +say truth, except for the progress of natural knowledge, we should +not have been able to make even the tools by which these machines +are constructed. And, further, it would be necessary to add, that +although severe fires sometimes occur and inflict great damage, the +loss is very generally compensated by societies, the operations of +which have been rendered possible only by the progress of natural +knowledge in the direction of mathematics, and the accumulation of +wealth in virtue of other natural knowledge. + +But the plague? My Lord Brouncker's observation would not, I fear, +lead him to think that Englishmen of the nineteenth century are +purer in life, or more fervent in religious faith, than the +generation which could produce a Boyle,[40] an Evelyn,[41] and +a Milton. He might find the mud of society at the bottom, instead +of at the top, but I fear that the sum total would be as deserving +of swift judgment as at the time of the Restoration.[42] And it +would be our duty to explain once more, and this time not without +shame, that we have no reason to believe that it is the improvement +of our faith, nor that of our morals, which keeps the plague from +our city; but, again, that it is the improvement of our natural +knowledge. + +We have learned that pestilences will only take up their abode +among those who have prepared unswept and ungarnished residences +for them. Their cities must have narrow, unwatered streets, foul +with accumulated garbage. Their houses must be ill-drained, ill- +lighted, ill-ventilated. Their subjects must be ill-washed, ill- +fed, ill-clothed. The London of 1665 was such a city. The cities +of the East, where plague has an enduring dwelling, are such +cities. We, in later times, have learned somewhat of Nature, and +partly obey her. Because of this partial improvement of our +natural knowledge and of that fractional obedience, we have no +plague; because that knowledge is still very imperfect and that +obedience yet incomplete, typhoid is our companion and cholera our +visitor. But it is not presumptuous to express the belief that, +when our knowledge is more complete and our obedience the +expression of our knowledge, London will count her centuries of +freedom from typhoid and cholera, as she now gratefully reckons her +two hundred years of ignorance of that plague which swooped upon +her thrice in the first half of the seventeenth century. + +Surely, there is nothing in these explanations which is not fully +borne out by the facts? Surely, the principles involved in them +are now admitted among the fixed beliefs of all thinking men? +Surely, it is true that our countrymen are less subject to fire, +famine, pestilence, and all the evils which result from a want of +command over and due anticipation of the course of Nature, than +were the countrymen of Milton; and health, wealth, and well-being +are more abundant with us than with them? But no less certainly is +the difference due to the improvement of our knowledge of Nature, +and the extent to which that improved knowledge has been +incorporated with the household words of men, and has supplied the +springs of their daily actions. + +Granting for a moment, then, the truth of that which the +depreciators of natural knowledge are so fond of urging, that its +improvement can only add to the resources of our material +civilisation; admitting it to be possible that the founders of the +Royal Society themselves looked for not other reward than this, I +cannot confess that I was guilty of exaggeration when I hinted, +that to him who had the gift of distinguishing between prominent +events and important events, the origin of a combined effort on the +part of mankind to improve natural knowledge might have loomed +larger than the Plague and have outshone the glare of the Fire; as +a something fraught with a wealth of beneficence to mankind, in +comparison with which the damage done by those ghastly evils would +shrink into insignificance. + +It is very certain that for every victim slain by the plague, +hundreds of mankind exist and find a fair share of happiness in the +world by the aid of the spinning jenny. And the great fire, at its +worst, could not have burned the supply of coal, the daily working +of which, in the bowels of the earth, made possible by the steam +pump, gives rise to an amount of wealth to which the millions lost +in old London are but as an old song. + + +But spinning jenny and steam pump are, after all, but toys, +possessing an accidental value; and natural knowledge creates +multitudes of more subtle contrivances, the praises of which do not +happen to be sung because they are not directly convertible into +instruments for creating wealth. When I contemplate natural +knowledge squandering such gifts among men, the only appropriate +comparison I can find for her is to liken her to such a peasant +woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever upward, heavily +burdened, and with mind bent only on her home; but yet without +effort and without thought, knitting for her children. Now +stockings are good and comfortable things, and the children will +undoubtedly be much the better for them; but surely it would be +short-sighted, to say the least of it, to depreciate this toiling +mother as a mere stocking-machine--a mere provider of physical +comforts? + +However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a few of +them, who take this view of natural knowledge, and can see nothing +in the bountiful mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding +machine. According to them, the improvement of natural knowledge +always has been, and always must be, synonymous with no more than +the improvement of the material resources and the increase of the +gratifications of men. + +Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of mankind, +bringing them up with kindness, and, if need be, with sternness, in +the way they should go, and instructing them in all things needful +for their welfare; but a sort of fairy god-mother, ready to furnish +her pets with shoes of swiftness, swords of sharpness, and +omnipotent Aladdin's lamps,[43] so that they may have telegraphs to +Saturn, and see the other side of the moon, and thank God they are +better than their benighted ancestors. + +If this talk were true, I, for one, should not greatly care to toil +in the service of natural knowledge. I think I would just as soon +be quietly chipping my own flint axe, after the manner of my +forefathers a few thousand years back, as be troubled with the +endless malady of thought which now infests us all, for such +reward. But I venture to say that such views are contrary alike to +reason and to fact. Those who discourse in such fashion seem to me +to be so intent upon trying to see what is above Nature, or what is +behind her, that they are blind to what stares them in the face in +her. + +I should not venture thus to speak strongly if my justification +were not to be found in the simplest and most obvious facts,--if it +needed more than an appeal to the most notorious truths to justify +my assertion, that the improvement of natural knowledge, whatever +direction it has taken, and however low the aims of those who may +have commenced it--has not only conferred practical benefits on +men, but, in so doing, has effected a revolution in their +conceptions of the universe and of themselves, and has profoundly +altered their modes of thinking and their views of right and wrong. +I say that natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has +found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings. I say +that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws of +comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay +the foundations of a new morality. + + +Let us take these points separately; and first, what great ideas +has natural knowledge introduced into men's minds? + +I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural knowledge +were laid when the reason of man first came face to face with the +facts of Nature; when the savage first learned that the fingers of +one hand are fewer than those of both; that it is shorter to cross +a stream than to head it; that a stone stops where it is unless it +be moved, and that it drops from the hand which lets it go; that +light and heat come and go with the sun; that sticks burn away in a +fire; that plants and animals grow and die; that if he struck his +fellow savage a blow he would make him angry, and perhaps get a +blow in return, while if he offered him a fruit he would please +him, and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. When men had acquired +this much knowledge, the outlines, rude though they were, of +mathematics, of physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, +economical, and political science, were sketched. Nor did the germ +of religion fail when science began to bud. Listen to words which, +though new, are yet three thousand years old:-- + + +. . . When in heaven the stars about the moon +Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, +And every height comes out, and jutting peak +And valley, and the immeasurable heavens +Break open to their highest, and all the stars +Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart.[44] + + +If the half savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, it is +irrational to doubt that he went further, to find as we do, that +upon that brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow,--the +little light of awakened human intelligence shines so mere a spark +amidst the abyss of the unknown and unknowable; seems so +insufficient to do more than illuminate the imperfections that +cannot be remedied, the aspirations that cannot be realised, of +man's own nature. But in this sadness, this consciousness of the +limitation of man, this sense of an open secret which he cannot +penetrate, lies the essence of all religion; and the attempt to +embody it in the forms furnished by the intellect is the origin of +the higher theologies. + +Thus it seems impossible to imagine but that the foundations of all +knowledge--secular or sacred--were laid when intelligence dawned, +though the superstructure remained for long ages so slight and +feeble as to be compatible with the existence of almost any general +view respecting the mode of governance of the universe. No doubt, +from the first, there were certain phenomena which, to the rudest +mind, presented a constancy of occurrence, and suggested that a +fixed order ruled, at any rate, among them. I doubt if the +grossest of Fetish worshippers ever imagined that a stone must have +a god within it to make it fall, or that a fruit had a god within +it to make it taste sweet. With regard to such matters as these, +it is hardly questionable that mankind from the first took strictly +positive and scientific views. + +But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which +present themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always taken +himself as the standard of comparison, as the centre and measure of +the world; nor could be well avoid doing so. And finding that his +apparently uncaused will has a powerful effect in giving rise to +many occurrences, he naturally enough ascribed other and greater +events to other and greater volitions and came to look upon the +world and all that therein is, as the product of the volitions of +persons like himself, but stronger, and capable of being appeased +or angered, as he himself might be soothed or irritated. Through +such conceptions of the plan and working of the universe all +mankind have passed, or are passing. And we may now consider what +has been the effect of the improvement of natural knowledge on the +views of men who have reached this stage, and who have begun to +cultivate natural knowledge with no desire but that of "increasing +God's honour and bettering man's estate."[45] + +For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material point of +view, more innocent, from a theological one, to an ancient people, +than that they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as +warnings for their husbandmen; or the position of the stars, as +guides to their rude navigators?[46] But what has grown out of this +search for natural knowledge of so merely useful a character? You +all know the reply. Astronomy,--which of all sciences has filled +men's minds with general ideas of a character most foreign to their +daily experience, and has, more than any other, rendered it +impossible for them to accept the beliefs of their fathers. +Astronomy,--which tells them that this so vast and seemingly solid +earth is but an atom among atoms, whirling, no man knows whither, +through illimitable space; which demonstrates that what we call the +peaceful heaven above us, is but that space, filled by an +infinitely subtle matter whose particles are seething and surging, +like the waves of an angry sea; which opens up to us infinite +regions where nothing is known, or ever seems to have been known, +but matter and force, operating according to rigid rules; which +leads us to contemplate phaenomena the very nature of which +demonstrates that they must have had a beginning, and that they +must have an end, but the very nature of which also proves that the +beginning was, to our conceptions of time, infinitely remote, and +that the end is as immeasurably distant. + +But it is not alone those who pursue astronomy who ask for bread +and receive ideas. What more harmless than the attempt to lift and +distribute water by pumping it; what more absolutely and grossly +utilitarian? Yet out of pumps grew the discussions about Nature's +abhorrence of a vacuum; and then it was discovered that Nature does +not abhor a vacuum, but that air has weight; and that notion paved +the way for the doctrine that all matter has weight, and that the +force which produces weight is co-extensive with the universe,--in +short, to the theory of universal gravitation and endless force. +While learning how to handle gases led to the discovery of oxygen, +and to modern chemistry, and to the notion of the indestructibility +of matter. + +Again, what simpler, or more absolutely practical, than the attempt +to keep the axle of a wheel from heating when the wheel turns round +very fast? How useful for carters and gig drivers to know +something about this; and how good were it, if any ingenious person +would find out the cause of such phaenomena, and thence educe a +general remedy for them. Such an ingenious person was Count +Rumford;[47] and he and his successors have landed us in the theory +of the persistence, or indestructibility, of force. And in the +infinitely minute, as in the infinitely great, the seekers after +natural knowledge of the kinds called physical and chemical, have +everywhere found a definite order and succession of events which +seem never to be infringed. + +And how has it fared with "Physick" and Anatomy? Have the +anatomist, the physiologist, or the physician, whose business it +has been to devote themselves assiduously to that eminently +practical and direct end, the alleviation of the sufferings of +mankind,--have they been able to confine their vision more +absolutely to the strictly useful? I fear they are the worst +offenders of all. For if the astronomer has set before us the +infinite magnitude of space, and the practical eternity of the +duration of the universe; if the physical and chemical philosophers +have demonstrated the infinite minuteness of its constituent parts, +and the practical eternity of matter and of force; and if both have +alike proclaimed the universality of a definite and predicable +order and succession of events, the workers in biology have not +only accepted all these, but have added more startling theses of +their own. For, as the astronomers discover in the earth no centre +of the universe, but an eccentric [48] speck, so the naturalists find +man to be no centre of the living world, but one amidst endless +modifications of life; and as the astronomers observe the mark of +practically endless time set upon the arrangements of the solar +system so the student of life finds the records of ancient forms of +existence peopling the world for ages, which, in relation to human +experience, are infinite. + +Furthermore, the physiologist finds life to be as dependent for its +manifestation of particular molecular arrangements as any physical +or chemical phenomenon; and wherever he extends his researches, +fixed order and unchanging causation reveal themselves, as plainly +as in the rest of Nature. + +Nor can I find that any other fate has awaited the germ of +Religion. Arising, like all other kinds of knowledge, out of the +action and interaction of man's mind, with that which is not man's +mind, it has taken the intellectual coverings of Fetishism or +Polytheism; of Theism or Atheism; of Superstition or Rationalism. +With these, and their relative merits and demerits, I have nothing +to do; but this it is needful for my purpose to say, that if the +religion of the present differs from that of the past, it is +because the theology of the present has become more scientific than +that of the past; because it has not only renounced idols of wood +and idols of stone, but begins to see the necessity of breaking in +pieces the idols built up of books and traditions and fine-spun +ecclesiastical cobwebs: and of cherishing the noblest and most +human of man's emotions, by worship "for the most part of the +silent sort" at the Altar of the Unknown. + +Such are a few of the new conceptions implanted in our minds by the +improvement of natural knowledge. Men have acquired the ideas of +the practically infinite extent of the universe and of its +practical eternity; they are familiar with the conception that our +earth is but an infinitesimal fragment of that part of the universe +which can be seen; and that, nevertheless, its duration is, as +compared with our standards of time, infinite. They have further +acquired the idea that man is but one of innumerable forms of life +now existing on the globe, and that the present existences are but +the last of an immeasurable series of predecessors. Moreover, +every step they have made in natural knowledge has tended to extend +and rivet in their minds the conception of a definite order of the +universe--which is embodied in what are called, by an unhappy +metaphor, the laws of Nature--and to narrow the range and loosen +the force of men's belief in spontaneity, or in changes other than +such as arise out of that definite order itself. + +Whether these ideas are well or ill founded is not the question. +No one can deny that they exist, and have been the inevitable +outgrowth of the improvement of natural knowledge. And if so, it +cannot be doubted that they are changing the form of men's most +cherished and most important convictions. + + +And as regards the second point--the extent to which the +improvement of natural knowledge has remodelled and altered what +may be termed the intellectual ethics of men,--what are among the +moral convictions most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous +people? + +They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of +belief; that merit attaches to a readiness to believe; that the +doubting disposition is a bad one, and scepticism a sin; that when +good authority has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has +accepted it, reason has no further duty. There are many excellent +persons who yet hold by these principles, and it is not my present +business, or intention, to discuss their views. All I wish to +bring clearly before your minds is the unquestionable fact, that +the improvement of natural knowledge is effected by methods which +directly give the lie to all these convictions, and assume the +exact reverse of each to be true. + +The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge +authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; +blind faith the one unpardonable sin. And it cannot be otherwise, +for every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the +absolute rejection of authority, the cherishing of the keenest +scepticism, the annihilation of the spirit of blind faith; and the +most ardent votary of science holds his firmest convictions, not +because the men he most venerates hold them; not because their +verity is testified by portents and wonders; but because his +experience teaches him that whenever he chooses to bring these +convictions into contact with their primary source, Nature-- +whenever he thinks fit to test them by appealing to experiment and +to observation--Nature will confirm them. The man of science has +learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by +verification. + +Thus, without for a moment pretending to despise the practical +results of the improvement of natural knowledge, and its beneficial +influence on material civilisation, it must, I think, be admitted +that the great ideas, some of which I have indicated, and the +ethical spirit which I have endeavoured to sketch, in the few +moments which remained at my disposal, constitute the real and +permanent significance of natural knowledge. + +If these ideas be destined, as I believe they are, to be more and +more firmly established as the world grows older; if that spirit be +fated, as I believe it is, to extend itself into all departments of +human thought, and to become co-extensive with the range of +knowledge; if, as our race approaches its maturity, it discovers, +as I believe it will, that there is but one kind of knowledge and +but one method of acquiring it; then we, who are still children, +may justly feel it our highest duty to recognise the advisableness +of improving natural knowledge, and so to aid ourselves and our +successors in our course towards the noble goal which lies before +mankind. + + + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION [49] + + +The business which the South London Working Men's College has +undertaken is a great work; indeed, I might say, that Education, +with which that college proposes to grapple, is the greatest work +of all those which lie ready to a man's hand just at present. + +And, at length, this fact is becoming generally recognised. You +cannot go anywhere without hearing a buzz of more or less confused +and contradictory talk on this subject--nor can you fail to notice +that, in one point at any rate, there is a very decided advance +upon like discussions in former days. Nobody outside the +agricultural interest now dares to say that education is a bad +thing. If any representative of the once large and powerful party, +which, in former days, proclaimed this opinion, still exists in the +semi-fossil state, he keeps his thoughts to himself. In fact, +there is a chorus of voices, almost distressing in their harmony, +raised in favour of the doctrine that education is the great +panacea for human troubles, and that, if the country is not shortly +to go to the dogs, everybody must be educated. + +The politicians tell us, "You must educate the masses because they +are going to be masters." The clergy join in the cry for +education, for they affirm that the people are drifting away from +church and chapel into the broadest infidelity. The manufacturers +and the capitalists swell the chorus lustily. They declare that +ignorance makes bad workmen; that England will soon be unable to +turn out cotton goods, or steam engines, cheaper than other people; +and then, Ichabod! Ichabod![50] the glory will be departed from us. +And a few voices are lifted up in favour of the doctrine that the +masses should be educated because they are men and women with +unlimited capacities of being, doing, and suffering, and that it is +as true now, as it ever was, that the people perish for lack of +knowledge. + +These members of the minority, with whom I confess I have a good +deal of sympathy, are doubtful whether any of the other reasons +urged in favour of the education of the people are of much value-- +whether, indeed, some of them are based upon either wise or noble +grounds of action. They question if it be wise to tell people that +you will do for them, out of fear of their power, what you have +left undone, so long as your only motive was compassion for their +weakness and their sorrows. And, if ignorance of everything which +is needful a ruler should know is likely to do so much harm in the +governing classes of the future, why is it, they ask reasonably +enough, that such ignorance in the governing classes of the past +has not been viewed with equal horror? + +Compare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it +may be doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in +point of ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that +the ignorance is of a different sort--that the class feeling is in +favour of a different class and that the prejudice has a distinct +savour of wrong-headedness in each case--but it is questionable if +the one is either a bit better, or a bit worse, than the other. +The old protectionist theory is the doctrine of trades unions as +applied by the squires, and the modern trades unionism is the +doctrine of the squires applied by the artisans. Why should we be +worse off under one regime than under the other? + +Again, this sceptical minority asks the clergy to think whether it +is really want of education which keeps the masses away from their +ministrations--whether the most completely educated men are not as +open to reproach on this score as the workmen; and whether, +perchance, this may not indicate that it is not education which +lies at the bottom of the matter? + +Once more, these people, whom there is no pleasing, venture to +doubt whether the glory which rests upon being able to undersell +all the rest of the world, is a very safe kind of glory--whether we +may not purchase it too dear; especially if we allow education, +which ought to be directed to the making of men, to be diverted +into a process of manufacturing human tools, wonderfully adroit in +the exercise of some technical industry, but good for nothing else. + +And, finally, these people inquire whether it is the masses alone +who need a reformed and improved education. They ask whether the +richest of our public schools might not well be made to supply +knowledge, as well as gentlemanly habits, a strong class feeling, +and eminent proficiency in cricket. They seem to think that the +noble foundations of our old universities are hardly fulfilling +their functions in their present posture of half-clerical +seminaries, half racecourses, where men are trained to win a senior +wranglership,[51] or a double-first,[52] as horses are trained +to win a cup, with as little reference to the needs of after-life +in the case of a man as in that of the racer. And, while as zealous +for education as the rest, they affirm that, if the education of the +richer classes were such as to fit them to be the leaders and the +governors of the poorer; and, if the education of the poorer +classes were such as to enable them to appreciate really wise +guidance and good governance, the politicians need not fear mob- +law, nor the clergy lament their want of flocks, nor the +capitalists prognosticate the annihilation of the prosperity of the +country. + +Such is the diversity of opinion upon the why and the wherefore of +education. And my hearers will be prepared to expect that the +practical recommendations which are put forward are not less +discordant. There is a loud cry for compulsory education. We +English, in spite of constant experience to the contrary, preserve +a touching faith in the efficacy of acts of Parliament; and I +believe we should have compulsory education in the courses of next +session, if there were the least probability that half a dozen +leading statesmen of different parties would agree what that +education should be. + +Some hold that education without theology is worse than none. +Others maintain, quite as strongly, that education with theology is +in the same predicament. But this is certain, that those who hold +the first opinion can by no means agree what theology should be +taught; and that those who maintain the second are in a small +minority. + +At any rate "make people learn to read, write, and cipher," say a +great many; and the advice is undoubtedly sensible as far as it +goes. But, as has happened to me in former days, those who, in +despair of getting anything better, advocate this measure, are met +with the objection that it is very like making a child practise the +use of a knife, fork, and spoon, without giving it particle of +meat. I really don't know what reply is to be made to such an +objection. + +But it would be unprofitable to spend more time in disentangling, +or rather in showing up the knots in, the ravelled skeins of our +neighbours. Much more to the purpose is it to ask if we possess +any clue of our own which may guide us among these entanglements. +And by way of a beginning, let us ask ourselves--What is education? +Above all things, what is our ideal of a thoroughly liberal +education?--of that education which, if we could begin life again, +we would give ourselves--of that education which, if we could mould +the fates to our own will, we would give our children? Well, I +know not what may be your conceptions upon this matter, but I will +tell you mine, and I hope I shall find that our views are not very +discrepant. + + +Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of +every one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or +losing a game of chess. Don't you think that we should all +consider it to be a primary duty to learn at least the names and +the moves of the pieces; to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen +eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check? Do you +not think that we should look with a disapprobation amounting to +scorn, upon the father who allowed his son, or the state which +allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a +knight? + +Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the +fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, +of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing +something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and +complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for +untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players +in a game of his or her own. The chessboard is the world, the +pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are +what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is +hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and +patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a +mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man +who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of +overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in +strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated--without haste, but +without remorse. + +My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which +Retzsch [53] has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. +Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong +angel who is playing for love, as we say, and would rather lose +than win--and I should accept it as an image of human life. + +Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty +game. In other words, education is the instruction of the +intellect in the laws of Nature, under which name I include not +merely things and their forces, but men and their ways; and the +fashioning of the affections and of the will into an earnest and +loving desire to move in harmony with those laws. For me, +education means neither more nor less than this. Anything which +professes to call itself education must be tried by this standard, +and if it fails to stand the test, I will not call it education, +whatever may be the force of authority, or of numbers, upon the +other side. + +It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is no such +thing as an uneducated man. Take an extreme case. Suppose that an +adult man, in the full vigour of his faculties, could be suddenly +placed in the world, as Adam is said to have been, and then left to +do as he best might. How long would he be left uneducated? Not +five minutes. Nature would begin to teach him, through the eye, +the ear, the touch, the properties of objects. Pain and pleasure +would be at his elbow telling him to do this and avoid that; and by +slow degrees the man would receive an education which, if narrow, +would be thorough, real, and adequate to his circumstances, though +there would be no extras and very few accomplishments. + +And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam or, better still, +an Eve, a new and greater world, that of social and moral +phenomena, would be revealed. Joys and woes, compared with which +all others might seem but faint shadows, would spring from the new +relations. Happiness and sorrow would take the place of the +coarser monitors, pleasure and pain; but conduct would still be +shaped by the observation of the natural consequences of actions; +or, in other words, by the laws of the nature of man. + +To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. +And then, long before we were susceptible of any other modes of +instruction, Nature took us in hand, and every minute of waking +life brought its educational influence, shaping our actions into +rough accordance with Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended +untimely by too gross disobedience. Nor should I speak of this +process of education as past for any one, be he as old as he may. +For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and +as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them. +And Nature is still continuing her patient education of us in that +great university, the universe, of which we are all members--Nature +having no Test-Acts.[54] + +Those who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws +which govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and +successful men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the +"Poll,"[55] who pick up just enough to get through without much +discredit. Those who won't learn at all are plucked;[56] and then +you can't come up again. Nature's pluck means extermination. + +Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as +Nature is concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and +passed long ago. But, like all compulsory legislation, that of +Nature is harsh and wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is +visited as sharply as wilful disobedience--incapacity meets with +the same punishment as crime. Nature's discipline is not even a +word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. +It is left to you to find out why your ears are boxed. + +The object of what we commonly call education--that education in +which man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial +education--is to make good these defects in Nature's methods; to +prepare the child to receive Nature's education, neither incapably +nor ignorantly, nor with wilful disobedience; and to understand the +preliminary symptoms of her pleasure, without waiting for the box +on the ear. In short, all artificial education ought to be an +anticipation of natural education. And a liberal education is an +artificial education which has not only prepared a man to escape +the great evils of disobedience to natural laws, but has trained +him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards, which Nature +scatters with as free a hand as her penalties. + +That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so +trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, +and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, +it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, +with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order; +ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and +spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose +mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths +of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted +ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained +to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender +conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature +or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. + +Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; +for he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. +He will make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on +together rarely; she as his ever beneficent mother; he as her +mouthpiece, her conscious self, her minister and interpreter. + + + +ON A PIECE OF CHALK [57] + + +If a well were sunk at our feet in the midst of the city of +Norwich, the diggers would very soon find themselves at work in +that white substance almost too soft to be called rock, with which +we are all familiar as "chalk." + +Not only here, but over the whole county of Norfolk, the well- +sinker might carry his shaft down many hundred feet without coming +to the end of the chalk; and, on the sea-coast, where the waves +have pared away the face of the land which breasts them, the +scarped faces of the high cliffs are often wholly formed of the +same material. Northward, the chalk may be followed as far as +Yorkshire; on the south coast it appears abruptly in the +picturesque western bays of Dorset, and breaks into the Needles of +the Isle of Wight;[58] while on the shores of Kent it supplies that +long line of white cliffs to which England owes her name of Albion. + +Were the thin soil which covers it all washed away, a curved band +of white chalk, here broader, and there narrower, might be followed +diagonally across England from Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough +Head [59] in Yorkshire--a distance of over two hundred and eighty +miles as the crow flies. + +From this band to the North Sea, on the east, and the Channel, on +the South, the chalk is largely hidden by other deposits; but, +except in the Weald [60] of Kent and Sussex, it enters into the +very foundation of all the south-eastern counties. + +Attaining, as it does in some places, a thickness of more than a +thousand feet, the English chalk must be admitted to be a mass of +considerable magnitude. Nevertheless, it covers but an +insignificant portion of the whole area occupied by the chalk +formation of the globe, which has precisely the same general +characters as ours, and is found in detached patches, some less, +and others more extensive, than the English. + +Chalk occurs in north-west Ireland; it stretches over a large part +of France,--the chalk which underlies Paris being, in fact, a +continuation of that of the London basin; it runs through Denmark +and Central Europe, and extends southward to North Africa; while +eastward, it appears in the Crimea and in Syria, and may be traced +as far as the shores of the Sea of Aral, in Central Asia. + +If all the points at which true chalk occurs were circumscribed, +they would lie within an irregular oval about three thousand miles +in long diameter--the area of which would be as great as that of +Europe, and would many times exceed that of the largest existing +inland sea--the Mediterranean. + +Thus the chalk is no unimportant element in the masonry of the +earth's crust, and it impresses a peculiar stamp, varying with the +conditions to which it is exposed, on the scenery of the districts +in which it occurs. The undulating downs and rounded coombs, +covered with sweet-grassed turf, of our inland chalk country, have +a peacefully domestic and mutton-suggesting prettiness, but can +hardly be called either grand or beautiful. But on our southern +coasts, the wall-sided cliffs, many hundred feet high, with vast +needles and pinnacles standing out in the sea, sharp and solitary +enough to serve as perches for the wary cormorant confer a +wonderful beauty and grandeur upon the chalk headlands. And, in +the East, chalk has its share in the formation of some of the most +venerable of mountain ranges, such as the Lebanon. + + +What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and +whence did it come? + +You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not +unnaturally suppose that the attempt to solve such problems as +these can lead to no result, save that of entangling the inquirer +in vague speculations, incapable of refutation and of verification. + +If such were really the case, I should have selected some other +subject than a "piece of chalk" for my discourse. But, in truth, +after much deliberation, I have been unable to think of any topic +which would so well enable me to lead you to see how solid is the +foundation upon which some of the most startling conclusions of +physical science rest. + +A great chapter of the history of the world is written in the +chalk. Few passages in the history of man can be supported by such +an overwhelming mass of direct and indirect evidence as that which +testifies to the truth of the fragment of the history of the globe, +which I hope to enable you to read, with your own eyes, tonight. + +Let me add, that few chapters of human history have a more profound +significance for ourselves. I weigh my words well when I assert, +that the man who should know the true history of the bit of chalk +which every carpenter carries about in his breeches-pocket, though +ignorant of all other history, is likely, if he will think his +knowledge out to its ultimate results, to have a truer, and +therefore a better, conception of this wonderful universe, and of +man's relation to it, than the most learned student who is deep- +read in the records of humanity and ignorant of those of Nature. + +The language of the chalk is not hard to learn, not nearly so hard +as Latin, if you only want to get at the broad features of the +story it has to tell; and I propose that we now set to work to +spell that story out together. + +We all know that if we "burn" chalk the result is quicklime. +Chalk, in fact, is a compound of carbonic acid gas, and lime, and +when you make it very hot the carbonic acid flies away and the lime +is left. + +By this method of procedure we see the lime, but we do not see the +carbonic acid. If, on the other hand, you were to powder a little +chalk and drop it into a good deal of strong vinegar, there would +be a great bubbling and fizzing, and, finally, a clear liquid, in +which no sign of chalk would appear. Here you see the carbonic +acid in the bubbles; the lime, dissolved in the vinegar, vanishes +from sight. There are a great many other ways of showing that +chalk is essentially nothing but carbonic acid and quicklime. +Chemists enunciate the result of all the experiments which prove +this, by stating that chalk is almost wholly composed of "carbonate +of lime." + +It is desirable for us to start from the knowledge of this fact, +though it may not seem to help us very far towards what we seek. +For carbonate of lime is a widely spread substance, and is met with +under very various conditions. All sorts of limestones are +composed of more or less pure carbonate of lime. The crust which +is often deposited by waters which have drained through limestone +rocks, in the form of what are called stalagmites and stalactites, +is carbonate of lime. Or, to take a more familiar example, the fur +on the inside of a tea-kettle is carbonate of lime; and, for +anything chemistry tells us to the contrary, the chalk might be a +kind of gigantic fur upon the bottom of the earth-kettle, which is +kept pretty hot below. + +Let us try another method of making the chalk tell us its own +history. To the unassisted eye chalk looks simply like a very +loose and open kind of stone. But it is possible to grind a slice +of chalk down so thin that you can see through it--until it is thin +enough, in fact, to be examined with any magnifying power that may +be thought desirable. A thin slice of the fur of a kettle might be +made in the same way. If it were examined microscopically, it +would show itself to be a more or less distinctly laminated mineral +substance and nothing more. + +But the slice of chalk presents a totally different appearance when +placed under the microscope. The general mass of it is made up of +very minute granules; but, imbedded in this matrix, are innumerable +bodies, some smaller and some larger, but, on a rough average, not +more than a hundredth of an inch in diameter, having a well-defined +shape and structure. A cubic inch of some specimens of chalk may +contain hundreds of thousands of these bodies, compacted together +with incalculable millions of the granules. + +The examination of a transparent slice gives a good notion of the +manner in which the components of the chalk are arranged, and of +their relative proportions. But, by rubbing up some chalk with a +brush in water and then pouring off the milky fluid, so as to +obtain sediments of different degrees of fineness, the granules and +the minute rounded bodies may be pretty well separated from one +another, and submitted to microscopic examination, either as opaque +or as transparent objects. By combining the views obtained in +these various methods, each of the rounded bodies may be proved to +be a beautifully constructed calcareous fabric, made up of a number +of chambers, communicating freely with one another. The chambered +bodies are of various forms. One of the commonest is something +like a badly grown raspberry, being formed of a number of nearly +globular chambers of different sizes congregated together. It is +called Globigerina, and some specimens of chalk consist of little +else than Globigerina and granules. + +Let us fix our attention upon the Globigerina. It is the spoor of +the game we are tracking. If we can learn what it is and what are +the conditions of its existence, we shall see our way to the origin +and past history of the chalk. + +A suggestion which may naturally enough present itself is, that +these curious bodies are the result of some process of aggregation +which has taken place in the carbonate of lime; that, just as in +winter, the rime on our windows simulates the most delicate and +elegantly arborescent foliage--proving that the mere mineral water +may, under certain conditions, assume the outward form of organic +bodies--so this mineral substance, carbonate of lime, hidden away +in the bowels of the earth, has taken the shape of these chambered +bodies. I am not raising a merely fanciful and unreal objection. +Very learned men, in former days, have even entertained the notion +that all the formed things found in rocks are of this nature; and +if no such conception is at present held to be admissible, it is +because long and varied experience has now shown that mineral +matter never does assume the form and structure we find in fossils. +If any one were to try to persuade you that an oyster-shell (which +is also chiefly composed of carbonate of lime) had crystallized out +of sea-water, I suppose you would laugh at the absurdity. Your +laughter would be justified by the fact that all experience tends +to show that oyster-shells are formed by the agency of oysters, and +in no other way. And if there were no better reasons, we should be +justified, on like grounds, in believing that Globigerina is not +the product of anything but vital activity. + +Happily, however, better evidence in proof of the organic nature of +the Globigerinae than that of analogy is forthcoming. It so +happens that calcareous skeletons, exactly similar to the +Globigerinae of the chalk, are being formed, at the present moment, +by minute living creatures, which flourish in multitudes, literally +more numerous than the sands of the sea-shore, over a large extent +of that part of the earth's surface which is covered by the ocean. + +The history of the discovery of these living Globigerinae, and of +the part which they play in rock building, is singular enough. It +is a discovery which, like others of no less scientific importance, +has arisen, incidentally, out of work devoted to very different and +exceedingly practical interests. + +When men first took to the sea, they speedily learned to look out +for shoals and rocks; and the more the burthen of their ships +increased, the more imperatively necessary it became for sailors to +ascertain with precision the depths of the waters they traversed. +Out of this necessity grew the use of the lead and sounding line; +and, ultimately, marine-surveying, which is the recording of the +form of coasts and of the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the +sounding-lead, upon charts. + +At the same time, it became desirable to ascertain and to indicate +the nature of the sea-bottom, since this circumstance greatly +affects its goodness as holding ground for anchors. Some ingenious +tar, whose name deserves a better fate than the oblivion into which +it has fallen, attained this object by "arming" the bottom of the +lead with a lump of grease, to which more or less of the sand or +mud, or broken shells, as the case might be, adhered, and was +brought to the surface. But, however well adapted such an +apparatus might be for rough nautical purposes, scientific accuracy +could not be expected from the armed lead, and to remedy its +defects (especially when applied to sounding in great depths) +Lieut. Brooke,[61] of the American Navy, some years ago invented +a most ingenious machine, by which a considerable portion of the +superficial layer of the sea-bottom can be scooped out and brought +up from any depth to which the lead descends. + +In 1853, Lieut. Brooke obtained mud from the bottom of the North +Atlantic, between Newfoundland and the Azores, at a depth of more +than ten thousand feet, or two miles, by the help of this sounding +apparatus. The specimens were sent for examination to Ehrenberg [62] +of Berlin, and to Bailey of West Point,[63] and those able +microscopists found that this deep-sea mud was almost entirely +composed of the skeletons of living organisms--the greater proportion +of these being just like the Globigerinae already known to occur +in the chalk. + +Thus far, the work had been carried on simply in the interests of +science, but Lieut. Brooke's method of sounding acquired a high +commercial value, when the enterprise of laying down the telegraph- +cable [64] between this country and the United States was undertaken. +For it became a matter of immense importance to know, not only the +depth of the sea over the whole line along which the cable was to +be laid, but the exact nature of the bottom, so as to guard against +chances of cutting or fraying the strands of that costly rope. The +Admiralty consequently ordered Captain Dayman, an old friend and +shipmate of mine, to ascertain the depth over the whole line of the +cable, and to bring back specimens of the bottom. In former days, +such a command as this might have sounded very much like one of the +impossible things which the young prince in the Fairy Tales is +ordered to do before he can obtain the hand of the Princess. +However, in the months of June and July, 1857, my friend performed +the task assigned to him with great expedition and precision +without, so far as I know, having met with any reward of that kind. +The specimens of Atlantic mud which he procured were sent to me to +be examined and reported upon.* + + +* See Appendix to Captain Dayman's "Deep-sea Soundings in the North +Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland and Newfoundland, made in H.M.S. +Cyclops. Published by order of the Lords Commissioners of the +Admiralty, 1858." They have since formed the subject of an +elaborate Memoir by Messrs. Parker and Jones, published in the +Philosophical Transactions for 1865. + + +The result of all these operations is, that we know the contours +and the nature of the surface-soil covered by the North Atlantic, +for a distance of seventeen hundred miles from east to west, as +well as we know that of any part of the dry land. + +It is a prodigious plain--one of the widest and most even plains in +the world. If the sea were drained off, you might drive a wagon +all the way from Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland, to Trinity +Bay, in Newfoundland. And, except upon one sharp incline about two +hundred miles from Valentia, I am not quite sure that it would even +be necessary to put the skid on, so gentle are the ascents and +descents upon that long route. From Valentia the road would lie +down-hill for about 200 miles to the point at which the bottom is +now covered by 1700 fathoms of sea-water. Then would come the +central plain, more than a thousand miles wide, the inequalities of +the surface of which would be hardly perceptible, though the depth +of water upon it now varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet; and there +are places in which Mont Blanc might be sunk without showing its +peak above water. Beyond this, the ascent on the American side +commences, and gradually leads, for about 300 miles, to the +Newfoundland shore. + +Almost the whole of the bottom of this central plain (which extends +for many hundred miles in a north and south direction) is covered +by a fine mud, which, when brought to the surface, dries into a +greyish-white friable substance. You can write with this on a +blackboard, if you are so inclined; and, to the eye, it is quite +like very soft, greyish chalk. Examined chemically, it proves to +be composed almost wholly of carbonate of lime; and if you make a +section of it, in the same way as that of the piece of chalk was +made, and view it with the microscope, it presents innumerable +Globigerinae embedded in a granular matrix. + +Thus this deep-sea mud is substantially chalk. I say +substantially, because there are a good many minor differences; but +as these have no bearing on the question immediately before us,-- +which is the nature of the Globigerinae of the chalk,--it is +unnecessary to speak of them. + +Globigerinae of every size, from the smallest to the largest, are +associated together in the Atlantic mud, and the chambers of many +are filled by a soft animal matter. This soft substance is, in +fact, the remains of the creature to which the Globigerina shell, +or rather skeleton, owes its existence--and which is an animal of +the simplest imaginable description. It is, in fact, a mere +particle of living jelly, without defined parts of any kind-- +without a mouth, nerves, muscles, or distinct organs, and only +manifesting its vitality to ordinary observation by thrusting out +and retracting from all parts of its surface, long filamentous +processes, which serve for arms and legs. Yet this amorphous +particle, devoid of everything which, in the higher animals, we +call organs, is capable of feeding, growing and multiplying; of +separating from the ocean the small proportion of carbonate of lime +which is dissolved in sea-water; and of building up that substance +into a skeleton for itself, according to a pattern which can be +imitated by no other known agency. + +The notion that animals can live and flourish in the sea, at the +vast depths from which apparently living Globigerinae have been +brought up, does not agree very well with our usual conceptions +respecting the conditions of animal life; and it is not so +absolutely impossible as it might at first appear to be, that the +Globigerinae of the Atlantic sea-bottom do not live and die where +they are found. + +As I have mentioned, the soundings from the great Atlantic plain +are almost entirely made up of Globigerinae, with the granules +which have been mentioned and some few other calcareous shells; but +a small percentage of the chalky mud--perhaps at most some five per +cent of it--is of a different nature, and consists of shells and +skeletons composed of silex, or pure flint. These silicious bodies +belong partly to the lowly vegetable organisms which are called +Diatomaceae, and partly to the minute, and extremely simple, +animals, termed Radiolaria. It is quite certain that these +creatures do not live at the bottom of the ocean, but at its +surface--where they may be obtained in prodigious numbers by the +use of a properly constructed net. Hence it follows that these +silicious organisms, though they are not heavier than the lightest +dust, must have fallen, in some cases, through fifteen thousand +feet of water, before they reached their final resting-place on the +ocean floor. And, considering how large a surface these bodies +expose in proportion to their weight, it is probable that they +occupy a great length of time in making their burial journey from +the surface of the Atlantic to the bottom. + +But if the Radiolaria and Diatoms are thus rained upon the bottom +of the sea, from the superficial layer of its waters in which they +pass their lives, it is obviously possible that the Globigerinae +may be similarly derived; and if they were so, it would be much +more easy to understand how they obtain their supply of food than +it is at present. Nevertheless, the positive and negative evidence +all points the other way. The skeletons of the full-grown, deep- +sea Globigerinae are so remarkably solid and heavy in proportion to +their surface as to seem little fitted for floating; and, as a +matter of fact, they are not to be found along with the Diatoms and +Radiolaria, in the uppermost stratum of the open ocean. + +It has been observed, again, that the abundance of Globigerinae, in +proportion to other organisms, of like kind, increases with the +depth of the sea; and that deep-water Globigerinae are larger than +those which live in shallower parts of the sea; and such facts +negative the supposition that these organisms have been swept by +currents from the shallows into the deeps of the Atlantic. + +It therefore seems to be hardly doubtful that these wonderful +creatures live and die at the depths in which they are found. + +However, the important points for us are, that the living +Globigerinae are exclusively marine animals, the skeletons of which +abound at the bottom of deep seas; and that there is not a shadow +of reason for believing that the habits of the Globigerinae of the +chalk differed from those of the existing species. But if this be +true, there is no escaping the conclusion that the chalk itself is +the dried mud of an ancient deep sea. + +In working over the soundings collected by Captain Dayman, I was +surprised to find that many of what I have called the "granules" of +that mud, were not, as one might have been tempted to think at +first, the mere powder and waste of Globigerinae, but that they had +a definite form and size. I termed these bodies "coccoliths," and +doubted their organic nature. Dr. Wallich [65] verified my +observation, and added the interesting discovery, that, not +unfrequently, bodies similar to these "coccoliths" were aggregated +together into spheroids, which he termed "coccospheres." So far +as we knew, these bodies, the nature of which is extremely puzzling +and problematical, were peculiar to the Atlantic soundings. + +But, a few years ago, Mr. Sorby,[66] in making a careful examination +of the chalk by means of thin sections and otherwise, observed, as +Ehrenberg had done before him, that much of its granular basis +possesses a definite form. Comparing these formed particles with +those in the Atlantic soundings, he found the two to be identical; +and thus proved that the chalk, like the soundings, contains these +mysterious coccoliths and coccospheres. Here was a further and a +most interesting confirmation, from internal evidence, of the +essential identity of the chalk with modern deep-sea mud. +Globigerinae, coccoliths, and coccospheres are round as the chief +constituents of both, and testify to the general similarity of the +conditions under which both have been formed. + +The evidence furnished by the hewing, facing, and superposition of +the stones of the Pyramids, that these structures were built by +men, has no greater weight than the evidence that the chalk was +built by Globigerinae; and the belief that those ancient pyramid- +builders were terrestrial and air-breathing creatures like +ourselves, is it not better based than the conviction that the +chalk-makers lived in the sea? + +But as our belief in the building of the Pyramids by men is not +only grounded on the internal evidences afforded by these +structures, but gathers strength from multitudinous collateral +proofs, and is clinched by the total absence of any reason for a +contrary belief; so the evidence drawn from the Globigerinae that +the chalk is an ancient sea-bottom, is fortified by innumerable +independent lines of evidence; and our belief in the truth of the +conclusion to which all positive testimony tends, receives the like +negative justification from the fact that no other hypothesis has a +shadow of foundation. + +It may be worth while briefly to consider a few of these collateral +proofs that the chalk was deposited at the bottom of the sea. + +The great mass of the chalk is composed, as we have seen, of the +skeletons of Globigerinae, and other simple organisms, imbedded in +granular matter. Here and there, however, this hardened mud of the +ancient sea reveals the remains of higher animals which have lived +and died, and left their hard parts in the mud, just as the oysters +die and leave their shells behind them, in the mud of the present +seas. + +There are, at the present day, certain groups of animals which are +never found in fresh waters, being unable to live anywhere but in +the sea. Such are the corals; those corallines which are called +Polycoa; those creatures which fabricate the lamp-shells, and are +called Brachiopoda; the pearly Nautilus, and all animals allied to +it; and all the forms of sea-urchins and star-fishes. + +Not only are all these creatures confined to salt water at the +present day; but, so far as our records of the past go, the +conditions of their existence have been the same: hence, their +occurrence in any deposit is as strong evidence as can be obtained, +that that deposit was formed in the sea. Now the remains of +animals of all the kinds which have been enumerated, occur in the +chalk, in greater or less abundance; while not one of those forms +of shell-fish which are characteristic of fresh water has yet been +observed in it. + +When we consider that the remains of more than three thousand +distinct species of aquatic animals have been discovered among the +fossils of the chalk, that the great majority of them are of such +forms as are now met with only in the sea, and that there is no +reason to believe that any one of them inhabited fresh water--the +collateral evidence that the chalk represents an ancient sea-bottom +acquires as great force as the proof derived from the nature of the +chalk itself. I think you will now allow that I did not overstate +my case when I asserted that we have as strong grounds for +believing that all the vast area of dry land, at present occupied +by the chalk, was once at the bottom of the sea, as we have for any +matter of history whatever; while there is no justification for any +other belief. + +No less certain it is that the time during which the countries we +now call south-east England, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, +Egypt, Arabia, Syria, were more or less completely covered by a +deep sea, was of considerable duration. + +We have already seen that the chalk is, in places, more than a +thousand feet thick. I think you will agree with me, that it must +have taken some time for the skeletons of animalcules of a +hundredth of an inch in diameter to heap up such a mass as that. I +have said that throughout the thickness of the chalk the remains of +other animals are scattered. These remains are often in the most +exquisite state of preservation. The valves of the shell-fishes +are commonly adherent; the long spines of some of the sea-urchins, +which would be detached by the smallest jar, often remain in their +places. In a word, it is certain that these animals have lived and +died when the place which they now occupy was the surface of as +much of the chalk as had then been deposited; and that each has +been covered up by the layer of Globigerina mud, upon which the +creatures imbedded a little higher up have, in like manner, lived +and died. But some of these remains prove the existence of +reptiles of vast size in the chalk sea. These lived their time, +and had their ancestors and descendants, which assuredly implies +time, reptiles being of slow growth. + +There is more curious evidence, again, that the process of covering +up, or, in other words, the deposit of Globigerina skeletons, did +not go on very fast. It is demonstrable that an animal of the +cretaceous sea might die, that its skeleton might lie uncovered +upon the sea-bottom long enough to lose all its outward coverings +and appendages by putrefaction; and that, after this had happened, +another animal might attach itself to the dead and naked skeleton, +might grow to maturity, and might itself die before the calcareous +mud had buried the whole. + +Cases of this kind are admirably described by Sir Charles Lyell.[67] +He speaks of the frequency with which geologists find in the chalk +a fossilized sea-urchin, to which is attached the lower valve of a +Crania. This is a kind of shell-fish, with a shell composed of two +pieces, of which, as in the oyster, one is fixed and the other +free. + +"The upper valve is almost invariably wanting, though occasionally +found in a perfect state of preservation in the white chalk at some +distance. In this case, we see clearly that the sea-urchin first +lived from youth to age, then died and lost its spines, which were +carried away. Then the young Crania adhered to the bared shell, +grew and perished in its turn; after which, the upper valve was +separated from the lower, before the Echinus [68] became enveloped +in chalky mud." + +A specimen in the Museum of Practical Geology, in London, still +further prolongs the period which must have elapsed between the +death of the sea-urchin, and its burial by the Globigerinae. For +the outward face of the valve of a Crania, which is attached to a +sea-urchin (Micraster), is itself overrun by an incrusting +coralline, which spreads thence over more or less of the surface of +the sea-urchin. It follows that, after the upper valve of the +Crania fell off, the surface of the attached valve must have +remained exposed long enough to allow of the growth of the whole +corraline, since corallines do not live imbedded in mud. + +The progress of knowledge may, one day, enable us to deduce from +such facts as these the maximum rate at which the chalk can have +accumulated, and thus to arrive at the minimum duration of the +chalk period. Suppose that the valve of the Crania upon which a +coralline has fixed itself in the way just described, is so +attached to the sea-urchin that no part of it is more than an inch +above the face upon which the sea-urchin rests. Then, as the +coralline could not have fixed itself, if the Crania had been +covered up with chalk mud, and could not have lived had itself been +so covered it follows, that an inch of chalk mud could not have +accumulated within the time between the death and decay of the soft +parts of the sea-urchin and the growth of the coralline to the full +size which it has attained. If the decay of the soft parts of the +sea-urchin; the attachment, growth to maturity, and decay of the +Crania; and the subsequent attachment and growth of the coralline, +took a year (which is a low estimate enough), the accumulation of +the inch of chalk must have taken more than a year: and the deposit +of a thousand feet of chalk must, consequently, have taken more +than twelve thousand years. + +The foundation of all this calculation is, of course, a knowledge +of the length of time the Crania and the coralline needed to attain +their full size; and, on this head, precise knowledge is at present +wanting. But there are circumstances which tend to show, that +nothing like an inch of chalk has accumulated during the life of a +Crania; and, on any probable estimate of the length of that life, +the chalk period must have had a much longer duration than that +thus roughly assigned to it. + + +Thus, not only is it certain that the chalk is the mud of an +ancient sea-bottom; but it is no less certain, that the chalk sea +existed during an extremely long period, though we may not be +prepared to give a precise estimate of the length of that period in +years. The relative duration is clear, though the absolute +duration may not be definable. The attempt to affix any precise +date to the period at which the chalk sea began, or ended, its +existence, is baffled by difficulties of the same kind. But the +relative age of the cretaceous epoch may be determined with as +great ease and certainty as the long duration of that epoch. + +You will have heard of the interesting discoveries recently made, +in various parts of Western Europe, of flint implements, obviously +worked into shape by human hands, under circumstances which show +conclusively that man is a very ancient denizen of these regions. + +It has been proved that the old populations of Europe, whose +existence has been revealed to us in this way, consisted of +savages, such as the Esquimaux are now; that, in the country which +is now France, they hunted the reindeer, and were familiar with the +ways of the mammoth and the bison. The physical geography of +France was in those days different from what it is now--the river +Somme,[69] for instance, having cut its bed a hundred feet deeper +between that time and this; and, it is probable, that the climate +was more like that of Canada or Siberia, than that of Western +Europe. + +The existence of these people is forgotten even in the traditions +of the oldest historical nations. The name and fame of them had +utterly vanished until a few years back; and the amount of physical +change which has been effected since their day, renders it more +than probable that, venerable as are some of the historical +nations, the workers of the chipped flints of Hoxne or of Amiens [70] +are to them, as they are to us, in point of antiquity. + +But, if we assign to these hoar relics of long-vanished generations +of men the greatest age that can possibly be claimed for them, they +are not older than the drift, or boulder clay, which, in comparison +with the chalk, is but a very juvenile deposit. You need go no +further than your own sea-board for evidence of this fact. At one +of the most charming spots on the coast of Norfolk, Cromer, you +will see the boulder clay forming a vast mass, which lies upon the +chalk, and must consequently have come into existence after it. +Huge boulders of chalk are, in fact, included in the clay, and have +evidently been brought to the position they now occupy, by the same +agency as that which has planted blocks of syenite from Norway side +by side with them. + +The chalk, then, is certainly older than the boulder clay. If you +ask how much, I will again take you no further than the same spot +upon your own coasts for evidence. I have spoken of the boulder +clay and drift as resting upon the chalk. That is not strictly +true. Interposed between the chalk and the drift is a +comparatively insignificant layer, containing vegetable matter. +But that layer tells a wonderful history. It is full of stumps of +trees standing as they grew. Fir-trees are there with their cones, +and hazel-bushes with their nuts; there stand the stools of oak and +yew trees, beeches and alders. Hence this stratum is appropriately +called the "forest-bed." + +It is obvious that the chalk must have been up-heaved and converted +into dry land, before the timber trees could grow upon it. As the +boles of some of these trees are from two to three feet in +diameter, it is no less clear that the dry land this formed +remained in the same condition for long ages. And not only do the +remains of stately oaks and well-grown firs testify to the duration +of this condition of things, but additional evidence to the same +effect is afforded by the abundant remains of elephants, +rhinoceroses, hippopotomuses and other great wild beasts, which it +has yielded to the zealous search of such men as the Rev. Mr. Gunn.[71] + +When you look at such a collection as he has formed, and bethink +you that these elephantine bones did veritably carry their owners +about, and these great grinders crunch, in the dark woods of which +the forest-bed is now the only trace, it is impossible not to feel +that they are as good evidence of the lapse of time as the annual +rings of the tree-stumps. + +Thus there is a writing upon the walls of cliffs at Cromer, and +whoso runs may read it. It tells us, with an authority which +cannot be impeached, that the ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was +raised up, and remained dry land, until it was covered with forest, +stocked with the great game whose spoils have rejoiced your +geologists. How long it remained in that condition cannot be said; +but "the whirligig of time [72] brought its revenges" in those days +as in these. That dry land, with the bones and teeth of generations +of long-lived elephants, hidden away among the gnarled roots and +dry leaves of its ancient trees, sank gradually to the bottom of +the icy sea, which covered it with huge masses of drift and boulder +clay. Sea-beasts, such as the walrus, now restricted to the +extreme north, paddled about where birds had twittered among the +topmost twigs of the fir-trees. How long this state of things +endured we know not, but at length it came to an end. The upheaved +glacial mud hardened into the soil of modern Norfolk. Forests grew +once more, the wolf and the beaver replaced the reindeer and the +elephant; and at length what we call the history of England dawned. + +Thus you have within the limits of your own county, proof that the +chalk can justly claim a very much greater antiquity than even the +oldest physical traces of mankind. But we may go further and +demonstrate, by evidence of the same authority as that which +testifies to the existence of the father of men, that the chalk is +vastly older than Adam himself. + +The Book of Genesis informs us that Adam, immediately upon his +creation, and before the appearance of Eve, was placed in the +Garden of Eden. The problem of the geographical position of Eden +has greatly vexed the spirits of the learned in such matters, but +there is one point respecting which, so far as I know, no +commentator has ever raised a doubt. This is, that of the four +rivers which are said to run out of it, Euphrates and Hiddekel [73] +are identical with the rivers now known by the names of Euphrates +and Tigris. + +But the whole country in which these mighty rivers take their +origin, and through which they run, is composed of rocks which are +either of the same age as the chalk, or of later date. So that the +chalk must not only have been formed, but, after its formation, the +time required for the deposit of these later rocks, and for their +upheaval into dry land, must have elapsed, before the smallest +brook which feeds the swift stream of "the great river, the river +of Babylon,"[74] began to flow. + + +Thus, evidence which cannot be rebutted, and which need not be +strengthened, though if time permitted I might indefinitely +increase its quantity, compels you to believe that the earth, from +the time of the chalk to the present day, has been the theatre of a +series of changes as vast in their amount, as they were slow in +their progress. The area on which we stand has been first sea and +then land, for at least four alternations; and has remained in each +of these conditions for a period of great length. + +Nor have these wonderful metamorphoses of sea into land, and of +land into sea, been confined to one corner of England. During the +chalk period, or "cretaceous epoch," not one of the present great +physical features of the globe was in existence. Our great +mountain ranges, Pyrenees, Alps, Himalayas, Andes, have all been +upheaved since the chalk was deposited, and the cretaceous sea +flowed over the sites of Sinai and Ararat. + +All this is certain, because rocks of cretaceous, or still later, +date have shared in the elevatory movements which gave rise to +these mountain chains; and may be found perched up, in some cases, +many thousand feet high upon their flanks. And evidence of equal +cogency demonstrates that, though, in Norfolk, the forest-bed rests +directly upon the chalk, yet it does so, not because the period at +which the forest grew immediately followed that at which the chalk +was formed, but because an immense lapse of time, represented +elsewhere by thousands of feet of rock, is not indicated at Cromer. + +I must ask you to believe that there is no less conclusive proof +that a still more prolonged succession of similar changes occurred, +before the chalk was deposited. Nor have we any reason to think +that the first term in the series of these changes is known. The +oldest sea-beds preserved to us are sands, and mud, and pebbles, +the wear and tear of rocks which were formed in still older oceans. + +But, great as is the magnitude of these physical changes of the +world, they have been accompanied by a no less striking series of +modifications in its living inhabitants. + +All the great classes of animals, beasts of the field, fowls of the +air, creeping things, and things which dwell in the waters, +flourished upon the globe long ages before the chalk was deposited. +Very few, however, if any, of these ancient forms of animal life +were identical with those which now live. Certainly not one of the +higher animals was of the same species as any of those now in +existence. The beasts of the field, in the days before the chalk, +were not our beasts of the field, nor the fowls of the air such as +those which the eye of men has seen flying, unless his antiquity +dates infinitely further back than we at present surmise. If we +could be carried back into those times, we should be as one +suddenly set down in Australia before it was colonized. We should +see mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, snails, and the +like, clearly recognisable as such, and yet not one of them would +be just the same as those with which we are familiar, and many +would be extremely different. + +From that time to the present, the population of the world has +undergone slow and gradual, but incessant changes. There has been +no grand catastrophe--no destroyer has swept away the forms of life +of one period, and replaced them by a totally new creation; but one +species has vanished and another has taken its place; creatures of +one type of structure have diminished, those of another have +increased, as time has passed on. And thus, while the differences +between the living creatures of the time before the chalk and those +of the present day appear startling, if placed side by side, we are +led from one to the other by the most gradual progress, if we +follow the course of Nature through the whole series of those +relics of her operations which she has left behind. + +And it is by the population of the chalk sea that the ancient and +the modern inhabitants of the world are most completely connected. +The groups which are dying out flourish, side by side, with the +groups which are now the dominant forms of life. + +Thus the chalk contains remains of those strange flying and +swimming reptiles, the pterodactyl, the ichthyosaurus, and the +plesiosaurus, which are found in no later deposits, but abounded in +preceding ages. The chambered shells called ammonites and +belemnites, which are so characteristic of the period preceding the +cretaceous, in like manner die with it. + +But, amongst these fading remainders of a previous state of things, +are some very modern forms of life, looking like Yankee pedlars +among a tribe of Red Indians. Crocodiles of modern type appear; +bony fishes, many of them very similar to existing species almost +supplant the forms of fish which predominate in more ancient seas; +and many kinds of living shellfish first become known to us in the +chalk. The vegetation acquires a modern aspect. A few living +animals are not even distinguishable as species, from those which +existed at that remote epoch. The Globigerina of the present day, +for example, is not different specifically from that of the chalk; +and the same may be said of many other Foraminifera. I think it +probable that critical and unprejudiced examination will show that +more than one species of much higher animals have had a similar +longevity; but the only example, which I can at present give +confidently is the snake's-head lamp-shell (Terebratulina caput +serpentis), which lives in our English seas and abounded (as +Terebratulina striata of authors) in the chalk. + +The longest line of human ancestry must hide its diminished head +before the pedigree of this insignificant shell-fish. We +Englishmen are proud to have an ancestor who was present at the +Battle of Hastings. The ancestors of Terebratulina caput serpentis +may have been present at a battle of Ichthyosauria in that part of +the sea which, when the chalk was forming, flowed over the site of +Hastings. While all around has changed, this Terebratulina has +peacefully propagated its species from generation to generation, +and stands to this day, as a living testimony to the continuity of +the present with the past history of the globe. + + +Up to this moment I have stated, so far as I know, nothing but +well-authenticated facts, and the immediate conclusions which they +force upon the mind. + +But the mind is so constituted that it does not willingly rest in +facts and immediate causes, but seeks always after a knowledge of +the remoter links in the chain of causation. + +Taking the many changes of any given spot of the earth's surface, +from sea to land and from land to sea, as an established fact, we +cannot refrain from asking ourselves how these changes have +occurred. And when we have explained them--as they must be +explained--by the alternate slow movements of elevation and +depression which have affected the crust of the earth, we go still +further back, and ask, Why these movements? + +I am not certain that any one can give you a satisfactory answer to +that question. Assuredly I cannot. All that can be said, for +certain, is, that such movements are part of the ordinary course of +nature, inasmuch as they are going on at the present time. Direct +proof may be given, that some parts of the land of the northern +hemisphere are at this moment insensibly rising and others +insensibly sinking; and there is indirect, but perfectly +satisfactory, proof, that an enormous area now covered by the +Pacific has been deepened thousands of feet, since the present +inhabitants of that sea came into existence. + +Thus there is not a shadow of a reason for believing that the +physical changes of the globe, in past times have been effected by +other than natural causes. + +Is there any more reason for believing that the concomitant +modifications in the forms of the living inhabitants of the globe +have been brought about in other ways? + +Before attempting to answer this question, let us try to form a +distinct mental picture of what has happened, in some special case. + +The crocodiles are animals which, as a group, have a very vast +antiquity. They abounded ages before the chalk was deposited; they +throng the rivers in warm climates, at the present day. There is a +difference in the form of the joints of the back-bone, and in some +minor particulars, between the crocodiles of the present epoch and +those which lived before the chalk; but in the cretaceous epoch, as +I have already mentioned, the crocodiles had assumed the modern +type of structure. Notwithstanding this, the crocodiles of the +chalk are not identically the same as those which lived in the +times called "older tertiary," which succeeded the cretaceous +epoch; and the crocodiles of the older tertiaries are not identical +with those of the newer tertiaries, nor are these identical with +existing forms. I leave open the question whether particular +species may have lived on from epoch to epoch. But each epoch has +had its peculiar crocodiles; though all, since the chalk, have +belonged to the modern type, and differ simply in their +proportions, and in such structural particulars as are discernible +only to trained eyes. + +How is the existence of this long succession of different species +of crocodiles to be accounted for? + +Only two suppositions seem to be open to us--Either each species of +crocodile has been specially created, or it has arisen out of some +pre-existing form by the operation of natural causes. + +Choose your hypothesis; I have chosen mine. I can find no warranty +for believing in the distinct creation of a score of successive +species of crocodiles in the course of countless ages of time. +Science gives no countenance to such a wild fancy; nor can even the +perverse ingenuity of a commentator pretend to discover this sense, +in the simple words in which the writer of Genesis records the +proceedings of the fifth and sixth days of the Creation. + +On the other hand, I see no good reason for doubting the necessary +alternative, that all these varied species have been evolved from +pre-existing crocodilian forms, by the operation of causes as +completely a part of the common order of nature, as those which +have effected the changes of the inorganic world. + +Few will venture to affirm that the reasoning which applies to +crocodiles loses its force among other animals, or among plants. +If one series of species has come into existence by the operation +of natural causes, it seems folly to deny that all may have arisen +in the same way. + + +A small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I were to put +the bit of chalk with which we started into the hot but obscure +flame of burning hydrogen, it would presently shine like the sun. +It seems to me that this physical metamorphosis is no false image +of what has been the result of our subjecting it to a jet of +fervent, though nowise brilliant, thought to-night. It has become +luminous, and its clear rays, penetrating the abyss of the remote +past, have brought within our ken some stages of the evolution of +the earth. And in the shifting "without haste, but without rest"[75] +of the land and sea, as in the endless variation of the forms +assumed by living beings, we have observed nothing but the natural +product of the forces originally possessed by the substance of the +universe. + + + +THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION [76] + + +I know quite well that launching myself into this discussion [77] is +a very dangerous operation; that it is a very large subject, and one +which is difficult to deal with, however much I may trespass upon +your patience in the time allotted to me. But the discussion is so +fundamental, it is so completely impossible to make up one's mind +on these matters until one has settled the question, that I will +even venture to make the experiment. A great lawyer-statesman and +philosopher of a former age--I mean Francis Bacon [78]--said that truth +came out of error much more rapidly than it came out of confusion. +There is a wonderful truth in that saying. Next to being right in +this world, the best of all things is to be clearly and definitely +wrong, because you will come out somewhere. If you go buzzing +about between right and wrong, vibrating and fluctuating, you come +out nowhere; but if you are absolutely and thoroughly and +persistently wrong, you must, some of these days, have the extreme +good fortune of knocking your head against a fact, and that sets +you all straight again. So I will not trouble myself as to whether +I may be right or wrong in what I am about to say, but at any rate +I hope to be clear and definite; and then you will be able to judge +for yourselves whether, in following out the train of thought I +have to introduce, you knock your heads against facts or not. + +I take it that the whole object of education is, in the first +place, to train the faculties of the young in such a manner as to +give their possessors the best chance of being happy [79] and useful +in their generation; and, in the second place, to furnish them with +the most important portions of that immense capitalised experience +of the human race which we call knowledge of various kinds. I am +using the term knowledge in its widest possible sense; and the +question is, what subjects to select by training and discipline, in +which the object I have just defined may be best attained. + +I must call your attention further to this fact, that all the +subjects of our thoughts--all feelings and propositions (leaving +aside our sensations as the mere materials and occasions of +thinking and feeling), all our mental furniture--may be classified +under one of two heads--as either within the province of the +intellect, something that can be put into propositions and affirmed +or denied; or as within the province of feeling, or that which, +before the name was defiled, was called the aesthetic side of our +nature, and which can neither be proved nor disproved, but only +felt and known. + +According to the classification which I have put before you, then, +the subjects of all knowledge are divisible into the two groups, +matters of science and matters of art; for all things with which +the reasoning faculty alone is occupied, come under the province of +science; and in the broadest sense, and not in the narrow and +technical sense in which we are now accustomed to use the word art, +all things feelable, all things which stir our emotions, come under +the term of art, in the sense of the subject-matter of the +aesthetic faculty. So that we are shut up to this--that the +business of education is, in the first place, to provide the young +with the means and the habit of observation; and, secondly, to +supply the subject-matter of knowledge either in the shape of +science or of art, or of both combined. + +Now, it is a very remarkable fact--but it is true of most things in +this world--that there is hardly anything one-sided, or of one +nature; and it is not immediately obvious what of the things that +interest us may be regarded as pure science, and what may be +regarded as pure art. It may be that there are some peculiarly +constituted persons who, before they have advanced far into the +depths of geometry, find artistic beauty about it; but, taking the +generality of mankind, I think it may be said that, when they begin +to learn mathematics, their whole souls are absorbed in tracing the +connection between the premisses and the conclusion, and that to +them geometry is pure science. So I think it may be said that +mechanics and osteology are pure science. On the other hand, +melody in music is pure art. You cannot reason about it; there is +no proposition involved in it. So, again, in the pictorial art, an +arabesque, or a "harmony in grey,"[80] touches none but the aesthetic +faculty. But a great mathematician, and even many persons who are +not great mathematicians, will tell you that they derive immense +pleasure from geometrical reasonings. Everybody knows +mathematicians speak of solutions and problems as "elegant," and +they tell you that a certain mass of mystic symbols is "beautiful, +quite lovely." Well, you do not see it. They do see it, because +the intellectual process, the process of comprehending the reasons +symbolised by these figures and these signs, confers upon them a +sort of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual symmetry. Take a +science of which I may speak with more confidence, and which is the +most attractive of those I am concerned with. It is what we call +morphology, which consists in tracing out the unity in variety of +the infinitely diversified structures of animals and plants. I +cannot give you any example of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more +intensely real than a pleasure of this kind--the pleasure which +arises in one's mind when a whole mass of different structures run +into one harmony as the expression of a central law. That is where +the province of art overlays and embraces the province of +intellect. And, if I may venture to express an opinion on such a +subject, the great majority of forms of art are not in the sense +what I just now defined them to be--pure art; but they derive much +of their quality from simultaneous and even unconscious excitement +of the intellect. + +When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so now; and it +so happened that I had the opportunity of hearing much good music. +Among other things, I had abundant opportunities of hearing that +great old master, Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well-- +though I knew nothing about music then, and, I may add, know +nothing whatever about it now--the intense satisfaction and delight +which I had in listening, by the hour together, to Bach's fugues. +It is a pleasure which remains with me, I am glad to think; but, of +late years, I have tried to find out the why and wherefore, and it +has often occurred to me that the pleasure derived from musical +compositions of this kind is essentially of the same nature as that +which is derived from pursuits which are commonly regarded as +purely intellectual. I mean, that the source of pleasure is +exactly the same as in most of my problems in morphology--that you +have the theme in one of the old master's works followed out in all +its endless variations, always appearing and always reminding you +of unity in variety. So in painting; what is called "truth to +nature" is the intellectual element coming in, and truth to nature +depends entirely upon the intellectual culture of the person to +whom art is addressed. If you are in Australia, you may get credit +for being a good artist--I mean among the natives--if you can draw +a kangaroo after a fashion. But, among men of higher civilisation, +the intellectual knowledge we possess brings its criticism into our +appreciation of works of art, and we are obliged to satisfy it, as +well as the mere sense of beauty in colour and in outline. And so, +the higher the culture and information of those whom art addresses, +the more exact and precise must be what we call its "truth to +nature." + +If we turn to literature, the same thing is true, and you find +works of literature which may be said to be pure art. A little +song of Shakespeare or of Goethe is pure art; it is exquisitely +beautiful, although its intellectual content may be nothing. A +series of pictures is made to pass before your mind by the meaning +of words, and the effect is a melody of ideas. Nevertheless, the +great mass of the literature we esteem is valued, not merely +because of having artistic form, but because of its intellectual +content; and the value is the higher the more precise, distinct, +and true is that intellectual content. And, if you will let me for +a moment speak of the very highest forms of literature, do we not +regard them as highest simply because the more we know the truer +they seem, and the more competent we are to appreciate beauty the +more beautiful they are? No man ever understands Shakespeare until +he is old, though the youngest may admire him, the reason being +that he satisfies the artistic instinct of the youngest and +harmonises with the ripest and richest experience of the oldest. + +I have said this much to draw your attention to what, in my mind, +lies at the root of all this matter, and at the understanding of +one another by the men of science on the one hand, and the men of +literature, and history, and art, on the other. It is not a +question whether one order of study or another should predominate. +It is a question of what topics of education you shall select which +will combine all the needful elements in such due proportion as to +give the greatest amount of food, support, and encouragement to +those faculties which enable us to appreciate truth, and to profit +by those sources of innocent happiness which are open to us, and, +at the same time, to avoid that which is bad, and coarse, and ugly, +and keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls and dangers which beset +those who break through the natural or moral laws. + +I address myself, in this spirit, to the consideration of the +question of the value of purely literary education. Is it good and +sufficient, or is it insufficient and bad? Well, here I venture to +say that there are literary educations and literary educations. If +I am to understand by that term the education that was current in +the great majority of middle-class schools, and upper schools too, +in this country when I was a boy, and which consisted absolutely +and almost entirely in keeping boys for eight or ten years at +learning the rules of Latin and Greek grammar, construing certain +Latin and Greek authors, and possibly making verses which, had they +been English verses, would have been condemned as abominable +doggerel,--if that is what you mean by liberal education, then I +say it is scandalously insufficient and almost worthless. My +reason for saying so is not from the point of view of science at +all, but from the point of view of literature. I say the thing +professes to be literary education that is not a literary education +at all. It was not literature at all that was taught, but science +in a very bad form. It is quite obvious that grammar is science +and not literature. The analysis of a text by the help of the +rules of grammar is just as much a scientific operation as the +analysis of a chemical compound by the help of the rules of +chemical analysis. There is nothing that appeals to the aesthetic +faculty in that operation; and I ask multitudes of men of my own +age, who went through this process, whether they ever had a +conception of art or literature until they obtained it for +themselves after leaving school? Then you may say, "If that is so, +if the education was scientific, why cannot you be satisfied with +it?" I say, because although it is a scientific training, it is of +the most inadequate and inappropriate kind. If there is any good +at all in scientific education it is that men should be trained, as +I said before, to know things for themselves at first hand, and +that they should understand every step of the reason of that which +they do. + +I desire to speak with the utmost respect of that science-- +philology--of which grammar is a part and parcel; yet everybody +knows that grammar, as it is usually learned at school, affords no +scientific training. It is taught just as you would teach the +rules of chess or draughts. On the other hand, if I am to +understand by a literary education the study of the literatures of +either ancient or modern nations--but especially those of +antiquity, and especially that of ancient Greece; if this +literature is studied, not merely from the point of view of +philological science, and its practical application to the +interpretation of texts, but as an exemplification of and +commentary upon the principles of art; if you look upon the +literature of a people as a chapter in the development of the human +mind, if you work out this in a broad spirit, and with such +collateral references to morals and politics, and physical +geography, and the like as are needful to make you comprehend what +the meaning of ancient literature and civilisation is,--then, +assuredly, it affords a splendid and noble education. But I still +think it is susceptible of improvement, and that no man will ever +comprehend the real secret of the difference between the ancient +world and our present time, unless he has learned to see the +difference which the late development of physical science has made +between the thought of this day and the thought of that, and he +will never see that difference, unless he has some practical +insight into some branches of physical science; and you must +remember that a literary education such as that which I have just +referred to, is out of the reach of those whose school life is cut +short at sixteen or seventeen. + +But, you will say, all this is fault-finding; let us hear what you +have in the way of positive suggestion. Then I am bound to tell +you that, if I could make a clean sweep of everything--I am very +glad I cannot because I might, and probably should, make mistakes,-- +but if I could make a clean sweep of everything and start afresh, +I should, in the first place, secure that training of the young in +reading and writing, and in the habit of attention and observation, +both to that which is told them, and that which they see, which +everybody agrees to. But in addition to that, I should make it +absolutely necessary for everybody, for a longer or shorter period, +to learn to draw. Now, you may say, there are some people who +cannot draw, however much they may be taught. I deny that in toto, +because I never yet met with anybody who could not learn to write. +Writing is a form of drawing; therefore if you give the same +attention and trouble to drawing as you do to writing, depend upon +it, there is nobody who cannot be made to draw, more or less well. +Do not misapprehend me. I do not say for one moment you would make +an artistic draughtsman. Artists are not made; they grow. You may +improve the natural faculty in that direction, but you cannot make +it; but you can teach simple drawing, and you will find it an +implement of learning of extreme value. I do not think its value +can be exaggerated, because it gives you the means of training the +young in attention and accuracy, which are the two things in which +all mankind are more deficient than in any other mental quality +whatever. The whole of my life has been spent in trying to give my +proper attention to things and to be accurate, and I have not +succeeded as well as I could wish; and other people, I am afraid, +are not much more fortunate. You cannot begin this habit too +early, and I consider there is nothing of so great a value as the +habit of drawing, to secure those two desirable ends. + +Then we come to the subject-matter, whether scientific or +aesthetic, of education, and I should naturally have no question at +all about teaching the elements of physical science of the kind I +have sketched, in a practical manner; but among scientific topics, +using the word scientific in the broadest sense, I would also +include the elements of the theory of morals and of that of +political and social life, which, strangely enough, it never seems +to occur to anybody to teach a child. I would have the history of +our own country, and of all the influences which have been brought +to bear upon it, with incidental geography, not as a mere chronicle +of reigns and battles, but as a chapter in the development of the +race, and the history of civilisation. + +Then with respect to aesthetic knowledge and discipline, we have +happily in the English language one of the most magnificent +storehouses of artistic beauty and of models of literary excellence +which exists in the world at the present time. I have said before, +and I repeat it here, that if a man cannot get literary culture of +the highest kind out of his Bible, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, +and Milton, and Hobbes,[81] and Bishop Berkeley,[82] to mention +only a few of our illustrious writers--I say, if he cannot get it +out of those writers he cannot get it out of anything; and I would +assuredly devote a very large portion of the time of every English +child to the careful study of the models of English writing of such +varied and wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is still more +important and still more neglected, the habit of using that language +with precision, with force, and with art. I fancy we are almost the +only nation in the world who seem to think that composition comes +by nature. The French attend to their own language, the Germans +study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth their +while. Nor would I fail to include, in the course of study I am +sketching, translations of all the best works of antiquity, or of +the modern world. It is a very desirable thing to read Homer in +Greek; but if you don't happen to know Greek, the next best thing +we can do is to read as good a translation of it as we have +recently been furnished with in prose.[83] You won't get all you +would get from the original, but you may get a great deal; and to +refuse to know this great deal because you cannot get all, seems to +be as sensible as for a hungry man to refuse bread because he cannot +get partridge. Finally, I would add instruction in either music or +painting, or, if the child should be so unhappy, as sometimes +happens, as to have no faculty for either of those, and no +possibility of doing anything in any artistic sense with them, then +I would see what could be done with literature alone; but I would +provide, in the fullest sense, for the development of the aesthetic +side of the mind. In my judgment, those are all the essentials of +education for an English child. With that outfit, such as it might +be made in the time given to education which is within the reach of +nine-tenths of the population--with that outfit, an Englishman, +within the limits of English life, is fitted to go anywhere, to +occupy the highest positions, to fill the highest offices of the +State, and to become distinguished in practical pursuits, in +science, or in art. For, if he have the opportunity to learn all +those things, and have his mind disciplined in the various +directions the teaching of those topics would have necessitated, +then, assuredly, he will be able to pick up, on his road through +life, all the rest of the intellectual baggage he wants. + +If the educational time at our disposition were sufficient, there +are one or two things I would add to those I have just now called +the essentials; and perhaps you will be surprised to hear, though I +hope you will not, that I should add, not more science, but one, +or, if possible, two languages. The knowledge of some other +language than one's own is, in fact, of singular intellectual +value. Many of the faults and mistakes of the ancient philosophers +are traceable to the fact that they knew no language but their own, +and were often led into confusing the symbol with the thought which +it embodied. I think it is Locke [84] who says that one-half of the +mistakes of philosophers have arisen from questions about words; +and one of the safest ways of delivering yourself from the bondage +of words is, to know how ideas look in words to which you are not +accustomed. That is one reason for the study of language; another +reason is, that it opens new fields in art and in science. Another +is the practical value of such knowledge; and yet another is this, +that if your languages are properly chosen, from the time of +learning the additional languages you will know your own language +better than ever you did. So, I say, if the time given to +education permits, add Latin and German. Latin, because it is the +key to nearly one-half of English and to all the Romance languages; +and German, because it is the key to almost all the remainder of +English, and helps you to understand a race from whom most of us +have sprung, and who have a character and a literature of a fateful +force in the history of the world, such as probably has been +allotted to those of no other people, except the Jews, the Greeks, +and ourselves. Beyond these, the essential and the eminently +desirable elements of all education, let each man take up his +special line--the historian devote himself to his history, the man +of science to his science, the man of letters to his culture of +that kind, and the artist to his special pursuit. + + +Bacon has prefaced some of his works with no more than this: +Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit;[85] let "sic cogitavi" be the +epilogue to what I have ventured to address to you to-night. + + + +THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION [86] + + +The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the +expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It +is simply the mode at which all phenomena are reasoned about, +rendered precise and exact. There is no more difference, but there +is just the same kind of difference, between the mental operations +of a man of science and those of an ordinary person, as there is +between the operations and methods of a baker or of a butcher +weighing out his goods in common scales, and the operations of a +chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis by means of +his balance and finely graduated weights. It is not that the +action of the scales in the one case, and the balance in the other, +differ in the principles of their construction or manner of +working; but the beam of one is set on an infinitely finer axis +than the other, and of course turns by the addition of a much +smaller weight. + +You will understand this better, perhaps, if I give you some +familiar example. You have all heard it repeated, I dare say, that +men of science work by means of induction and deduction, and that +by the help of these operations, they, in a sort of sense, wring +from Nature certain other things, which are called natural laws, +and causes, and that out of these, by some cunning skill of their +own, they build up hypotheses and theories. And it is imagined by +many, that the operations of the common mind can be by no means +compared with these processes, and that they have to be acquired by +a sort of special apprenticeship to the craft. To hear all these +large words, you would think that the mind of a man of science must +be constituted differently from that of his fellow men; but if you +will not be frightened by terms, you will discover that you are +quite wrong, and that all these terrible apparatus [87] are being +used by yourselves every day and every hour of your lives. + +There is a well-known incident in one of Moliere's plays,[88] +where the author makes the hero express unbounded delight on being +told that he had been talking prose during the whole of his life. +In the same way, I trust, that you will take comfort, and be delighted +with yourselves, on the discovery that you have been acting on the +principles of inductive and deductive philosophy during the same +period. Probably there is not one here who has not in the course +of the day had occasion to set in motion a complex train of +reasoning, of the very same kind, though differing of course in +degree, as that which a scientific man goes through in tracing the +causes of natural phenomena. + +A very trivial circumstance will serve to exemplify this. Suppose +you go into a fruiterer's shop, wanting an apple,--you take up one, +and, on biting it, you find it is sour; you look at it, and see +that it is hard and green. You take up another one, and that too +is hard, green, and sour. The shopman offers you a third; but, +before biting it, you examine it, and find that it is hard and +green, and you immediately say that you will not have it, as it +must be sour, like those that you have already tried. + +Nothing can be more simple than that, you think; but if you will +take the trouble to analyse and trace out into its logical elements +what has been done by the mind, you will be greatly surprised. In +the first place you have performed the operation of induction. You +found that, in two experiences, hardness and greenness in apples +went together with sourness. It was so in the first case, and it +was confirmed by the second. True, it is a very small basis, but +still it is enough to make an induction from; you generalise the +facts, and you expect to find sourness in apples where you get +hardness and greenness. You found upon that a general law that all +hard and green apples are sour; and that, so far as it goes, is a +perfect induction. Well, having got your natural law in this way, +when you are offered another apple which you find is hard and +green, you say, "All hard and green apples are sour; this apple is +hard and green, therefore this apple is sour." That train of +reasoning is what logicians call a syllogism, and has all its +various parts and terms,--its major premiss, its minor premiss and +its conclusion. And, by the help of further reasoning, which, if +drawn out, would have to be exhibited in two or three other +syllogisms, you arrive at your final determination, "I will not +have that apple." So that, you see, you have, in the first place, +established a law by induction, and upon that you have founded a +deduction, and reasoned out the special particular case. Well now, +suppose, having got your conclusion of the law, that at some time +afterwards, you are discussing the qualities of apples with a +friend: you will say to him, "It is a very curious thing,--but I +find that all hard and green apples are sour!" Your friend says to +you, "But how do you know that?" You at once reply, "Oh, because I +have tried them over and over again, and have always found them to +be so." Well, if we were talking science instead of common sense, +we should call that an experimental verification. And, if still +opposed, you go further, and say, "I have heard from the people in +Somersetshire and Devonshire, where a large number of apples are +grown, that they have observed the same thing. It is also found to +be the case in Normandy, and in North America. In short, I find it +to be the universal experience of mankind wherever attention has +been directed to the subject." Whereupon, your friend, unless he +is a very unreasonable man, agrees with you, and is convinced that +you are quite right in the conclusion you have drawn. He believes, +although perhaps he does not know he believes it, that the more +extensive verifications are,--that the more frequently experiments +have been made, and results of the same kind arrived at,--that the +more varied the conditions under which the same results are +attained, the more certain is the ultimate conclusion, and he +disputes the question no further. He sees that the experiment has +been tried under all sorts of conditions, as to time, place, and +people, with the same result; and he says with you, therefore, that +the law you have laid down must be a good one, and he must believe +it. + +In science we do the same thing;--the philosopher exercises +precisely the same faculties, though in a much more delicate +manner. In scientific inquiry it becomes a matter of duty to +expose a supposed law to every possible kind of verification, and +to take care, moreover, that this is done intentionally, and not +left to a mere accident, as in the case of the apples. And in +science, as in common life, our confidence in a law is in exact +proportion to the absence of variation in the result of our +experimental verifications. For instance, if you let go your grasp +of an article you may have in your hand, it will immediately fall +to the ground. That is a very common verification of one of the +best established laws of nature--that of gravitation. The method +by which men of science establish the existence of that law is +exactly the same as that by which we have established the trivial +proposition about the sourness of hard and green apples. But we +believe it in such an extensive, thorough, and unhesitating manner +because the universal experience of mankind verifies it, and we can +verify it ourselves at any time; and that is the strongest possible +foundation on which any natural law can rest. + +So much, then, by way of proof that the method of establishing laws +in science is exactly the same as that pursued in common life. Let +us now turn to another matter (though really it is but another +phase of the same question), and that is, the method by which, from +the relations of certain phenomena, we prove that some stand in the +position of causes towards the others. + +I want to put the case clearly before you, and I will therefore +show you what I mean by another familiar example. I will suppose +that one of you, on coming down in the morning to the parlor of +your house, finds that a tea-pot and some spoons which had been +left in the room on the previous evening are gone,--the window is +open, and you observe the mark of a dirty hand on the window-frame, +and perhaps, in addition to that, you notice the impress of a hob- +nailed shoe on the gravel outside. All these phenomena have struck +your attention instantly, and before two seconds have passed you +say, "Oh, somebody has broken open the window, entered the room, +and run off with the spoons and the tea-pot!" That speech is out +of your mouth in a moment. And you will probably add, "I know +there has; I am quite sure of it!" You mean to say exactly what +you know; but in reality you are giving expression to what is, in +all essential particulars, an hypothesis. You do not KNOW it at +all; it is nothing but an hypothesis rapidly framed in your own +mind. And it is an hypothesis founded on a long train of +inductions and deductions. + +What are those inductions and deductions, and how have you got at +this hypothesis? You have observed in the first place, that the +window is open; but by a train of reasoning involving many +inductions and deductions, you have probably arrived long before at +the general law--and a very good one it is--that windows do not +open of themselves; and you therefore conclude that something has +opened the window. A second general law that you have arrived at +in the same way is, that tea-pots and spoons do not go out of a +window spontaneously, and you are satisfied that, as they are not +now where you left them, they have been removed. In the third +place, you look at the marks on the windowsill, and the shoe-marks +outside, and you say that in all previous experience the former +kind of mark has never been produced by anything else but the hand +of a human being; and the same experience shows that no other +animal but man at present wears shoes with hob-nails in them such +as would produce the marks in the gravel. I do not know, even if +we could discover any of those "missing links" that are talked +about, that they would help us to any other conclusion! At any +rate the law which states our present experience is strong enough +for my present purpose. You next reach the conclusion that, as +these kind [89] of marks have not been left by any other animal than +man, or are liable to be formed in any other way than a man's hand +and shoe, the marks in question have been formed by a man in that +way. You have, further, a general law, founded on observation and +experience, and that, too, is, I am sorry to say, a very universal +and unimpeachable one,--that some men are thieves; and you assume +at once from all these premisses--and that is what constitutes your +hypothesis--that the man who made the marks outside and on the +window-sill, opened the window, got into the room, and stole your +tea-pot and spoons. You have now arrived at a vera causa;--you +have assumed a cause which, it is plain, is competent to produce +all the phenomena you have observed. You can explain all these +phenomena only by the hypothesis of a thief. But that is a +hypothetical conclusion, of the justice of which you have no +absolute proof at all; it is only rendered highly probable by a +series of inductive and deductive reasonings. + +I suppose your first action, assuming that you are a man of +ordinary common sense, and that you have established this +hypothesis to your own satisfaction, will very likely be to go off +for the police, and set them on the track of the burglar, with the +view to the recovery of your property. But just as you are +starting with this object, some person comes in, and on learning +what you are about, says, "My good friend, you are going on a great +deal too fast. How do you know that the man who really made the +marks took the spoons? It might have been a monkey that took them, +and the man may have merely looked in afterwards." You would +probably reply, "Well, that is all very well, but you see it is +contrary to all experience of the way tea-pots and spoons are +abstracted; so that, at any rate, your hypothesis is less probable +than mine." While you are talking the thing over in this way, +another friend arrives, one of the good kind of people that I was +talking of a little while ago. And he might say, "Oh, my dear sir, +you are certainly going on a great deal too fast. You are most +presumptuous. You admit that all these occurrences took place when +you were fast asleep, at a time when you could not possibly have +known anything about what was taking place. How do you know that +the laws of Nature are not suspended during the night? It may be +that there has been some kind of supernatural interference in this +case." In point of fact, he declares that your hypothesis is one +of which you cannot at all demonstrate the truth, and that you are +by no means sure that the laws of Nature are the same when you are +asleep as when you are awake. + +Well, now, you cannot at the moment answer that kind of reasoning. +You feel that your worthy friend has you somewhat at a +disadvantage. You will feel perfectly convinced in your own mind, +however, that you are quite right, and you say to him, "My good +friend, I can only be guided by the natural probabilities of the +case, and if you will be kind enough to stand aside and permit me +to pass, I will go and fetch the police." Well, we will suppose +that your journey is successful, and that by good luck you meet +with a policeman; that eventually the burglar is found with your +property on his person, and the marks correspond to his hand and to +his boots. Probably any jury would consider those facts a very +good experimental verification of your hypothesis, touching the +cause of the abnormal phenomena observed in your parlor, and would +act accordingly. + +Now, in this supposititious case, I have taken phenomena of a very +common kind, in order that you might see what are the different +steps in an ordinary process of reasoning, if you will only take +the trouble to analyse it carefully. All the operations I have +described, you will see, are involved in the mind of any man of +sense in leading him to a conclusion as to the course he should +take in order to make good a robbery and punish the offender. I +say that you are led, in that case, to your conclusion by exactly +the same train of reasoning as that which a man of science pursues +when he is endeavouring to discover the origin and laws of the most +occult phenomena. The process is, and always must be, the same; +and precisely the same mode of reasoning was employed by Newton [90] +and Laplace [91] in their endeavours to discover and define the causes +of the movements of the heavenly bodies, as you, with your own common +sense, would employ to detect a burglar. The only difference is, +that the nature of the inquiry being more abstruse, every step has +to be most carefully watched, so that there may not be a single +crack or flaw in your hypothesis. A flaw or crack in many of the +hypotheses of daily life may be of little or no moment as affecting +the general correctness of the conclusions at which we may arrive; +but, in a scientific inquiry, a fallacy, great or small, is always +of importance, and is sure to be in the long run constantly +productive of mischievous if not fatal results. + +Do not allow yourselves to be misled by the common notion that an +hypothesis is untrustworthy simply because it is an hypothesis. It +is often urged, in respect to some scientific conclusion, that, +after all, it is only an hypothesis. But what more have we to +guide us in nine-tenths of the most important affairs of daily life +than hypotheses, and often very ill-based ones? So that in +science, where the evidence of an hypothesis is subjected to the +most rigid examination, we may rightly pursue the same course. You +may have hypotheses, and hypotheses. A man may say, if he likes, +that the moon is made of green cheese: that is an hypothesis. But +another man, who has devoted a great deal of time and attention to +the subject, and availed himself of the most powerful telescopes +and the results of the observations of others, declares that in his +opinion it is probably composed of materials very similar to those +of which our own earth is made up: and that is also only an +hypothesis. But I need not tell you that there is an enormous +difference in the value of the two hypotheses. That one which is +based on sound scientific knowledge is sure to have a corresponding +value; and that which is a mere hasty random guess is likely to +have but little value. Every great step in our progress in +discovering causes has been made in exactly the same way as that +which I have detailed to you. A person observing the occurrence of +certain facts and phenomena asks, naturally enough, what process, +what kind of operation known to occur in Nature applied to the +particular case, will unravel and explain the mystery? Hence you +have the scientific hypothesis; and its value will be proportionate +to the care and completeness with which its basis had been tested +and verified. It is in these matters as in the commonest affairs +of practical life: the guess of the fool will be folly, while the +guess of the wise man will contain wisdom. In all cases, you see +that the value of the result depends on the patience and +faithfulness with which the investigator applies to his hypothesis +every possible kind of verification. + + + +ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE [92] + + +In order to make the title of this discourse generally +intelligible, I have translated the term "Protoplasm," which is the +scientific name of the substance of which I am about to speak, by +the words "the physical basis of life." I suppose that, to many, +the idea that there is such a thing as a physical basis, or matter, +of life may be novel--so widely spread is the conception of life as +a something which works through matter, but is independent of it; +and even those who are aware that matter and life are inseparably +connected, may not be prepared for the conclusion plainly suggested +by the phrase, "THE physical basis or matter of life," that there +is some one kind of matter which is common to all living beings, +and that their endless diversities are bound together by a +physical, as well as an ideal, unity. In fact, when first +apprehended, such a doctrine as this appears almost shocking to +common sense. + +What, truly, can seem to be more obviously different from one +another, in faculty, in form, and in substance, than the various +kinds of living beings? What community of faculty can there be +between the bright-coloured lichen, which so nearly resembles a +mere mineral incrustation of the bare rock on which it grows, and +the painter, to whom it is instinct with beauty, or the botanist, +whom it feeds with knowledge? + +Again, think of the microscopic fungus--a mere infinitesimal ovoid +particle, which finds space and duration enough to multiply into +countless millions in the body of a living fly; and then of the +wealth of foliage, the luxuriance of flower and fruit, which lies +between this bald sketch of a plant and the giant pine of +California, towering to the dimensions of a cathedral spire, or the +Indian fig, which covers acres with its profound shadow, and +endures while nations and empires come and go around its vast +circumference. Or, turning to the other half of the world of life, +picture to yourselves the great Finner whale,[93] hugest of beasts +that live, or have lived, disporting his eighty or ninety feet of bone, +muscle and blubber, with easy roll, among waves in which the +stoutest ship that ever left dockyard would flounder hopelessly; +and contrast him with the invisible animalcules--mere gelatinous +specks, multitudes of which could, in fact, dance upon the point of +a needle with the same ease as the angels of the Schoolmen could, +in imagination. With these images before your minds, you may well +ask, what community of form, or structure, is there between the +animalcule and the whale; or between the fungus and the fig-tree? +And, a fortiori,[94] between all four? + +Finally, if we regard substance, or material composition, what +hidden bond can connect the flower which a girl wears in her hair +and the blood which courses through her youthful veins; or, what is +there in common between the dense and resisting mass of the oak, or +the strong fabric of the tortoise, and those broad disks of glassy +jelly which may be seen pulsating through the waters of a calm sea, +but which drain away to mere films in the hand which raises them +out of their element? + +Such objections as these must, I think, arise in the mind of every +one who ponders, for the first time, upon the conception of a +single physical basis of life underlying all the diversities of +vital existence; but I propose to demonstrate to you that, +notwithstanding these apparent difficulties, a threefold unity-- +namely, a unity of power or faculty, a unity of form, and a unity +of substantial composition--does pervade the whole living world. + + +No very abstruse argumentation is needed, in the first place to +prove that the powers, or faculties, of all kinds of living matter, +diverse as they may be in degree, are substantially similar in +kind. + +Goethe has condensed a survey of all powers of mankind into the +well-known epigram:--[95] + +"Warum treibt sich das Volk so und schreit? Es will sich ernahren +Kinder zeugen, und die nahren so gut es vermag. +. . . . . . . . . . . . . +Weiter bringt es kein Mensch, stell' er sich wie er auch will." + + +In physiological language this means, that all the multifarious and +complicated activities of man are comprehensible under three +categories. Either they are immediately directed towards the +maintenance and development of the body, or they effect transitory +changes in the relative positions of parts of the body, or they +tend towards the continuance of the species. Even those +manifestations of intellect, of feeling, and of will, which we +rightly name the higher faculties, are not excluded from this +classification, inasmuch as to every one but the subject of them, +they are known only as transitory changes in the relative positions +of parts of the body. Speech, gesture, and every other form of +human action are, in the long run, resolvable into muscular +contraction, and muscular contraction is but a transitory change in +the relative positions of the parts of a muscle. But the scheme +which is large enough to embrace the activities of the highest form +of life, covers all those of the lower creatures. The lowest +plant, or animalcule, feeds, grows, and reproduces its kind. In +addition, all animals manifest those transitory changes of form +which we class under irritability and contractility; and, it is +more than probable, that when the vegetable world is thoroughly +explored, we shall find all plants in possession of the same +powers, at one time or other of their existence. + +I am not now alluding to such phaenomena, at once rare and +conspicuous, as those exhibited by the leaflets of the sensitive +plants, or the stamens of the barberry, but to much more widely +spread, and at the same time, more subtle and hidden, +manifestations of vegetable contractility. You are doubtless aware +that the common nettle owes its stinging property to the +innumerable stiff and needle-like, though exquisitely delicate, +hairs which cover its surface. Each stinging-needle tapers from a +broad base to a slender summit, which, though rounded at the end, +is of such microscopic fineness that it readily penetrates, and +breaks off in, the skin. The whole hair consists of a very +delicate outer case of wood, closely applied to the inner surface +of which is a layer of semi-fluid matter, full of innumerable +granules of extreme minuteness. This semi-fluid lining is +protoplasm, which thus constitutes a kind of bag, full of a limpid +liquid, and roughly corresponding in form with the interior of the +hair which it fills. When viewed with a sufficiently high +magnifying power, the protoplasmic layer of the nettle hair is seen +to be in a condition of unceasing activity. Local contractions of +the whole thickness of its substance pass slowly and gradually from +point to point, and give rise to the appearance of progressive +waves, just as the bending of successive stalks of corn by a breeze +produces the apparent billows of a cornfield. + +But, in addition to these movements, and independently of them, the +granules are driven, in relatively rapid streams, through channels +in the protoplasm which seem to have a considerable amount of +persistence. Most commonly, the currents in adjacent parts of the +protoplasm take similar directions; and, thus, there is a general +stream up one side of the hair and down the other. But this does +not prevent the existence of partial currents which take different +routes; and sometimes trains of granules may be seen coursing +swiftly in opposite directions within a twenty-thousandth of an +inch of one another; while, occasionally, opposite streams come +into direct collision, and, after a longer or shorter struggle, one +predominates. The cause of these currents seems to lie in +contractions of the protoplasm which bounds the channels in which +they flow, but which are so minute that the best microscopes show +only their effects, and not themselves. + +The spectacle afforded by the wonderful energies prisoned within +the compass of the microscopic hair of a plant, which we commonly +regard as a merely passive organism, is not easily forgotten by one +who has watched its display, continued hour after hour, without +pause or sign of weakening. The possible complexity of many other +organic forms, seemingly as simple as the protoplasm of the nettle, +dawns upon one; and the comparison of such a protoplasm to a body +with an internal circulation, which has been put forward by an +eminent physiologist, loses much of its startling character. +Currents similar to those of the hairs of the nettle have been +observed in a great multitude of very different plants, and weighty +authorities have suggested that they probably occur, in more or +less perfection, in all young vegetable cells. If such be the +case, the wonderful noonday silence of a tropical forest is, after +all, due only to the dulness of our hearing; and could our ears +catch the murmur of these tiny Maelstroms, [96] as they whirl in the +innumerable myriads of living cells which constitute each tree, we +should be stunned, as with the roar of a great city. + +Among the lower plants, it is the rule rather than the exception, +that contractility should be still more openly manifested at some +periods of their existence. The protoplasm of Algae and Fungi +becomes, under many circumstances, partially, or completely, freed +from its woody case, and exhibits movements of its whole mass, or +is propelled by the contractility of one, or more, hair-like +prolongations of its body, which are called vibratile cilia. And, +so far as the conditions of the manifestation of the phaenomena of +contractility have yet been studied, they are the same for the +plant as for the animal. Heat and electric shocks influence both, +and in the same way, though it may be in different degrees. It is +by no means my intention to suggest that there is no difference in +faculty between the lowest plant and the highest, or between plants +and animals. But the difference between the powers of the lowest +plant, or animal, and those of the highest, is one of degree, not +of kind, and depends, as Milne-Edwards [97] long ago so well pointed +out, upon the extent to which the principle of the division of +labour is carried out in the living economy. In the lowest +organism all parts are competent to perform all functions, and one +and the same portion of protoplasm may successfully take on the +function of feeding, moving, or reproducing apparatus. In the +highest, on the contrary, a great number of parts combine to +perform each function, each part doing its allotted share of the +work with great accuracy and efficiency, but being useless for any +other purpose. + +On the other hand, notwithstanding all the fundamental resemblances +which exist between the powers of the protoplasm in plants and in +animals, they present a striking difference (to which I shall +advert more at length presently), in the fact that plants can +manufacture fresh protoplasm out of mineral compounds, whereas +animals are obliged to procure it ready made, and hence, in the +long run, depend upon plants. Upon what condition this difference +in the powers of the two great divisions of the world of life +depends, nothing is at present known. + +With such qualifications as arises [98] out of the last-mentioned +fact, it may be truly said that the acts of all living things are +fundamentally one. Is any such unity predicable of their forms? +Let us seek in easily verified facts for a reply to this question. +If a drop of blood be drawn by pricking one's finger, and viewed +with proper precautions, and under a sufficiently high microscopic +power, there will be seen, among the innumerable multitude of +little, circular, discoidal bodies, or corpuscles, which float in +it and give it its colour, a comparatively small number of +colourless corpuscles, of somewhat larger size and very irregular +shape. If the drop of blood be kept at the temperature of the +body, these colourless corpuscles will be seen to exhibit a +marvellous activity, changing their forms with great rapidity, +drawing in and thrusting out prolongations of their substance, and +creeping about as if they were independent organisms. + +The substance which is thus active is a mass of protoplasm, and its +activity differs in detail, rather than in principle, from that of +the protoplasm of the nettle. Under sundry circumstances the +corpuscle dies and becomes distended into a round mass, in the +midst of which is seen a smaller spherical body, which existed, but +was more or less hidden, in the living corpuscle, and is called its +nucleus. Corpuscles of essentially similar structure are to be +found in the skin, in the lining of the mouth, and scattered +through the whole framework of the body. Nay, more; in the +earliest condition of the human organism, in that state in which it +has but just become distinguishable from the egg in which it +arises, it is nothing but an aggregation of such corpuscles, and +every organ of the body was, once, no more than such an +aggregation. + +Thus a nucleated mass of protoplasm turns out to be what may be +termed the structural unit of the human body. As a matter of fact, +the body, in its earliest state, is a mere multiple of such units; +and in its perfect condition, it is a multiple of such units, +variously modified. + +But does the formula which expresses the essential structural +character of the highest animal cover all the rest, as the +statement of its powers and faculties covered that of all others? +Very nearly. Beast and fowl, reptile and fish, mollusk, worm, and +polype, are all composed of structural units of the same character, +namely, masses of protoplasm with a nucleus. There are sundry very +low animals, each of which, structurally, is a mere colourless +blood-corpuscle, leading an independent life. But, at the very +bottom of the animal scale, even this simplicity becomes +simplified, and all the phaenomena of life are manifested by a +particle of protoplasm without a nucleus. Nor are such organisms +insignificant by reason of their want of complexity. It is a fair +question whether the protoplasm of those simplest forms of life, +which people an immense extent of the bottom of the sea, would not +outweigh that of all the higher living beings which inhabit the +land put together. And in ancient times, no less than at the +present day, such living beings as these have been the greatest of +rock builders. + +What has been said of the animal world is no less true of plants. +Imbedded in the protoplasm at the broad, or attached, end of the +nettle hair, there lies a spheroidal nucleus. Careful examination +further proves that the whole substance of the nettle is made up of +a repetition of such masses of nucleated protoplasm, each contained +in a wooden case, which is modified in form, sometimes into a woody +fibre, sometimes into a duct or spiral vessel, sometimes into a +pollen grain, or an ovule. Traced back to its earliest state, the +nettle arises as the man does, in a particle of nucleated +protoplasm. And in the lowest plants, as in the lowest animals, a +single mass of such protoplasm may constitute the whole plant, or +the protoplasm may exist without a nucleus. + +Under these circumstances it may well be asked, how is one mass of +non-nucleated protoplasm to be distinguished from another? why call +one "plant" and the other "animal"? + +The only reply is that, so far as form is concerned, plants and +animals are not separable, and that, in many cases, it is a mere +matter of convention whether we call a given organism an animal or +a plant. There is a living body called Aethalium septicum, which +appears upon decaying vegetable substances, and, in one of its +forms, is common upon the surfaces of tan-pits. In this condition +it is, to all intents and purposes, a fungus, and formerly was +always regarded as such; but the remarkable investigations of De +Bary [99] have shown that, in another condition, the Aethalium is an +actively locomotive creature, and takes in solid matters, upon +which, apparently, it feeds, thus exhibiting the most characteristic +feature of animality. Is this a plant; or is it an animal? +Is it both; or is it neither? Some decide in favour of the last +supposition, and establish an intermediate kingdom, a sort +of biological No Man's Land [100] for all these questionable forms. +But, as it is admittedly impossible to draw any distinct boundary line +between this no man's land and the vegetable world on the one hand, +or the animal, on the other, it appears to me that this proceeding +merely doubles the difficulty which, before, was single. + +Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. +It is the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he +will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from +the commonest brick or sun-dried clod. + +Thus it becomes clear that all living powers are cognate, and +that all living forms are fundamentally of one character. The +researches of the chemist have revealed a no less striking +uniformity of material composition in living matter. + +In perfect strictness, it is true that chemical investigation can +tell us little or nothing, directly, of the composition of living +matter, inasmuch as such matter must needs die in the act of +analysis,--and upon this very obvious ground, objections, which I +confess seem to me to be somewhat frivolous, have been raised to +the drawing of any conclusions whatever respecting the composition +of actually living matter, from that of the dead matter of life, +which alone is accessible to us. But objectors of this class do +not seem to reflect that it is also, in strictness, true that we +know nothing about the composition of any body whatever, as it is. +The statement that a crystal of calc-spar consists of carbonate of +lime, is quite true, if we only mean that, by appropriate +processes, it may be resolved into carbonic acid and quicklime. If +you pass the same carbonic acid over the very quicklime thus +obtained, you will obtain carbonate of lime again; but it will not +be calc-spar, nor anything like it. Can it, therefore, be said +that chemical analysis teaches nothing about the chemical +composition of calc-spar? Such a statement would be absurd; but it +is hardly more so than the talk one occasionally hears about the +uselessness of applying the results of chemical analysis to the +living bodies which have yielded them. + +One fact, at any rate, is out of reach of such refinements, and +this is, that all the forms of protoplasm which have yet been +examined contain the four elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and +nitrogen, in very complex union, and that they behave similarly +towards several reagents. To this complex combination, the nature +of which has never been determined with exactness, the name of +Protein has been applied. And if we use this term with such +caution as may properly arise out of our comparative ignorance of +the things for which it stands, it may be truly said, that all +protoplasm is proteinaceous, or, as the white, or albumen, of an +egg is one of the commonest examples of a nearly pure proteine +matter, we may say that all living matter is more or less +albuminoid. + +Perhaps it would not yet be safe to say that all forms of +protoplasm are affected by the direct action of electric shocks; +and yet the number of cases in which the contraction of protoplasm +is shown to be affected by this agency increases every day. + +Nor can it be affirmed with perfect confidence, that all forms of +protoplasm are liable to undergo that peculiar coagulation at a +temperature of 40-50 degrees centigrade, which has been called +"heat-stiffening," though Kuhne's [101] beautiful researches have +proved this occurrence to take place in so many and such diverse +living beings, that it is hardly rash to expect that the law holds +good for all. + + +Enough has, perhaps, been said to prove the existence of a general +uniformity in the character of the protoplasm, or physical basis, +of life, in whatever group of living beings it may be studied. But +it will be understood that this general uniformity by no means +excludes any amount of special modifications of the fundamental +substance. The mineral, carbonate of lime, assumes an immense +diversity of characters, though no one doubts that, under all these +Protean changes, it is one and the same thing. + +And now, what is the ultimate fate, and what the origin, of the +matter of life? + +Is it, as some of the older naturalists supposed, diffused +throughout the universe in molecules, which are indestructible and +unchangeable in themselves; but, in endless transmigration, unite +in innumerable permutations, into the diversified forms of life we +know? Or, is the matter of life composed of ordinary matter, +differing from it only in the manner in which its atoms are +aggregated? Is it built up of ordinary matter, and again resolved +into ordinary matter when its work is done? + +Modern science does not hesitate a moment between these +alternatives. Physiology writes over the portals of life-- + +"Debemur morti nos nostraque,"[102] + +with a profounder meaning than the Roman poet attached to that +melancholy line. Under whatever disguise it takes refuge, whether +fungus or oak, worm or man, the living protoplasm not only +ultimately dies and is resolved into its mineral and lifeless +constituents, but is always dying, and, strange as the paradox may +sound, could not live unless it died. + +In the wonderful story of the Peau de Chagrin,[103] the hero becomes +possessed of a magical wild ass' skin, which yields him the means +of gratifying all his wishes. But its surface represents the +duration of the proprietor's life; and for every satisfied desire +the skin shrinks in proportion to the intensity of fruition, until +at length life and the last handbreadth of the peau de chagrin, +disappear with the gratification of a last wish. + +Balzac's [104] studies had led him over a wide range of thought and +speculation, and his shadowing forth of physiological truth in this +strange story may have been intentional. At any rate, the matter +of life is a veritable peau de chagrin, and for every vital act it +is somewhat the smaller. All work implies waste, and the work of +life results, directly or indirectly, in the waste of protoplasm. + +Every word uttered by a speaker costs him some physical loss; and, +in the strictest sense, he burns that others may have light--so +much eloquence, so much of his body resolved into carbonic acid, +water, and urea. It is clear that this process of expenditure +cannot go on for ever. But, happily, the protoplasmic peau de +chagrin differs from Balzac's in its capacity of being repaired, +and brought back to its full size, after every exertion. + +For example, this present lecture, whatever its intellectual worth +to you, has a certain physical value to me, which is, conceivably, +expressible by the number of grains of protoplasm and other bodily +substance wasted in maintaining my vital processes during its +delivery. My peau de chagrin will be distinctly smaller at the end +of the discourse than it was at the beginning. By and by, I shall +probably have recourse to the substance commonly called mutton, for +the purpose of stretching it back to its original size. Now this +mutton was once the living protoplasm, more or less modified, of +another animal--a sheep. As I shall eat it, it is the same matter +altered, not only by death, but by exposure to sundry artificial +operations in the process of cooking. + +But these changes, whatever be their extent, have not rendered it +incompetent to resume its old functions as matter of life. A +singular inward laboratory, which I possess, will dissolve a +certain portion of the modified protoplasm; the solution so formed +will pass into my veins; and the subtle influences to which it will +then be subjected will convert the dead protoplasm into living +protoplasm, and transubstantiate sheep into man. + +Nor is this all. If digestion were a thing to be trifled with, I +might sup upon lobster, and the matter of life of the crustacean +would undergo the same wonderful metamorphosis into humanity. And +were I to return to my own place by sea, and undergo shipwreck, the +crustacean might, and probably would, return the compliment, and +demonstrate our common nature by turning my protoplasm into living +lobster. Or, if nothing better were to be had, I might supply my +wants with mere bread, and I should find the protoplasm of the +wheat-plant to be convertible into man, with no more trouble than +that of the sheep, and with far less, I fancy, than that of the +lobster. + +Hence it appears to be a matter of no great moment what animal, or +what plant, I lay under contribution for protoplasm, and the fact +speaks volumes for the general identity of that substance in all +living beings. I share this catholicity of assimilation with other +animals, all of which, so far as we know, could thrive equally well +on the protoplasm of any of their fellows, or of any plant; but +here the assimilative powers of the animal world cease. A solution +of smelling-salts in water, with an infinitesimal proportion of +some other saline matters, contains all the elementary bodies which +enter into the composition of protoplasm; but, as I need hardly +say, a hogshead of that fluid would not keep a hungry man from +starving, nor would it save any animal whatever from a like fate. +An animal cannot make protoplasm, but must take it ready-made from +some other animal, or some plant--the animal's highest feat of +constructive chemistry being to convert dead protoplasm into that +living matter of life which is appropriate to itself. + +Therefore, in seeking for the origin of protoplasm, we must +eventually turn to the vegetable world. A fluid containing +carbonic acid, water, and nitrogenous salts, which offers such a +Barmecide feast [105] to the animal, is a table richly spread to +multitudes of plants; and, with a due supply of only such +materials, many a plant will not only maintain itself in vigour, +but grow and multiply until it has increased a million-fold, or a +million million-fold, the quantity of protoplasm which it +originally possessed; in this way building up the matter of life, +to an indefinite extent, from the common matter of the universe. + +Thus, the animal can only raise the complex substance of dead +protoplasm to the higher power, as one may say, of living +protoplasm; while the plant can raise the less complex substances-- +carbonic acid, water, and nitrogenous salts--to the same stage of +living protoplasm, if not to the same level. But the plant also +has its limitations. Some of the fungi, for example, appear to +need higher compounds to start with; and no known plant can live +upon the uncompounded elements of protoplasm. A plant supplied +with pure carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, phosphorus, +sulphur, and the like, would as infallibly die as the animal in his +bath of smelling-salts, though it would be surrounded by all the +constituents of protoplasm. Nor, indeed, need the process of +simplification of vegetable food be carried so far as this, in +order to arrive at the limit of the plant's thaumaturgy. Let +water, carbonic acid, and all the other needful constituents be +supplied except nitrogenous salts, and an ordinary plant will still +be unable to manufacture protoplasm. + +Thus the matter of life, so far as we know it (and we have no right +to speculate on any other), breaks up, in consequence of that +continual death which is the condition of its manifesting vitality, +into carbonic acid, water, and nitrogenous compounds, which +certainly possess no properties but those of ordinary matter. And +out of these same forms of ordinary matter, and from none which are +simpler, the vegetable world builds up all the protoplasm which +keeps the animal world a-going. Plants are the accumulators of the +power which animals distribute and disperse. + +But it will be observed, that the existence of the matter of life +depends on the pre-existence of certain compounds; namely, carbonic +acid, water, and certain nitrogenous bodies. Withdraw any one of +these three from the world, and all vital phaenomena come to an +end. They are as necessary to the protoplasm of the plant, as the +protoplasm of the plant is to that of the animal. Carbon, +hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are all lifeless bodies. Of these, +carbon and oxygen unite in certain proportions and under certain +conditions, to give rise to carbonic acid; hydrogen and oxygen +produce water; nitrogen and other elements give rise to nitrogenous +salts. These new compounds, like the elementary bodies of which +they are composed, are lifeless. But when they are brought +together, under certain conditions, they give rise to the still +more complex body, protoplasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the +phaenomena of life. + +I see no break in this series of steps in molecular complication, +and I am unable to understand why the language which is applicable +to any one term of the series may not be used to any of the others. +We think fit to call different kinds of matter carbon, oxygen, +hydrogen, and nitrogen, and to speak of the various powers and +activities of these substances as the properties of the matter of +which they are composed. + +When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in a certain proportion, and an +electric spark is passed through them, they disappear, and a +quantity of water, equal in weight to the sum of their weights, +appears in their place. There is not the slightest parity between +the passive and active powers of the water and those of the oxygen +and hydrogen which have given rise to it. At 32 degrees +Fahrenheit, and far below that temperature, oxygen and hydrogen are +elastic gaseous bodies, whose particles tend to rush away from one +another with great force. Water, at the same temperature, is a +strong though brittle solid whose particles tend to cohere into +definite geometrical shapes, and sometimes build up frosty +imitations of the most complex forms of vegetable foliage. + +Nevertheless we call these, and many other strange phaenomena, the +properties of the water, and we do not hesitate to believe that, in +some way or another, they result from the properties of the +component elements of the water. We do not assume that a something +called "aquosity" entered into and took possession of the oxidated +hydrogen as soon as it was formed, and then guided the aqueous +particles to their places in the facets of the crystal, or amongst +the leaflets of the hoar-frost. On the contrary, we live in the +hope and in the faith that, by the advance of molecular physics, we +shall by and by be able to see our way as clearly from the +constituents of water to the properties of water, as we are now +able to deduce the operations of a watch from the form of its parts +and the manner in which they are put together. + +Is the case in any way changed when carbonic acid, water, and +nitrogenous salts disappear, and in their place, under the +influence of pre-existing living protoplasm, an equivalent weight +of the matter of life makes its appearance? + +It is true that there is no sort of parity between the properties +of the components and the properties of the resultant, but neither +was there in the case of the water. It is also true that what I +have spoken of as the influence of pre-existing living matter is +something quite unintelligible; but does anybody quite comprehend +the modus operandi [106] of an electric spark, which traverses a +mixture of oxygen and hydrogen? + +What justification is there, then, for the assumption of the +existence in the living matter of a something which has no +representative, or correlative, in the not living matter which gave +rise to it? What better philosophical status has "vitality" than +"aquosity"? And why should "vitality" hope for a better fate than +the other "itys" which have disappeared since Martinus Scriblerus [107] +accounted for the operation of the meat-jack [108] by its inherent +"meat-roasting quality," and scorned the "materialism" of those who +explained the turning of the spit by a certain mechanism worked by +the draught of the chimney. + +If scientific language is to possess a definite and constant +signification whenever it is employed, it seems to me that we are +logically bound to apply to the protoplasm, or physical basis of +life, the same conceptions as those which are held to be legitimate +elsewhere. If the phaenomena exhibited by water are its +properties, so are those presented by protoplasm, living or dead, +its properties. + +If the properties of water may be properly said to result from the +nature and disposition of its component molecules, I can find no +intelligible ground for refusing to say that the properties of +protoplasm result from the nature and disposition of its molecules. + +But I bid you beware that, in accepting these conclusions, you are +placing your feet on the first rung of a ladder which, in most +people's estimation, is the reverse of Jacob's, and leads to the +antipodes of heaven. It may seem a small thing to admit that the +dull vital actions of a fungus, or a foraminifer, are the +properties of their protoplasm, and are the direct results of the +nature of the matter of which they are composed. But if, as I have +endeavoured to prove to you, their protoplasm is essentially +identical with, and most readily converted into, that of any +animal, I can discover no logical halting-place between the +admission that such is the case, and the further concession that +all vital action may, with equal propriety, be said to be the +result of the molecular forces of the protoplasm which displays it. +And if so, it must be true, in the same sense and to the same +extent, that the thoughts to which I am now giving utterance, and +your thoughts regarding them, are the expression of molecular +changes in that matter of life which is the source of our other +vital phaenomena.[109] + + + +ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS [110] + + +The marine productions which are commonly known by the names of +"Corals" and "Corallines," were thought by the ancients to be sea- +weeds, which had the singular property of becoming hard and solid, +when they were fished up from their native depths and came into +contact with the air. + + +"Sic et curalium, quo primum contigit auras +Tempore durescit: mollis fuit herba sub undis,"[111] + + +says Ovid (Metam. xv); and it was not until the seventeenth century +that Boccone [112] was emboldened, by personal experience of the facts, +to declare that the holders of this belief were no better than +"idiots," who had been misled by the softness of the outer coat of +the living red coral to imagine that it was soft all through. + +Messer Boccone's strong epithet is probably undeserved, as the +notion he controverts, in all likelihood, arose merely from the +misinterpretation of the strictly true statement which any coral +fisherman would make to a curious inquirer; namely, that the +outside coat of the red coral is quite soft when it is taken out of +the sea. At any rate, he did good service by eliminating this much +error from the current notions about coral. But the belief that +corals are plants remained, not only in the popular, but in the +scientific mind; and it received what appeared to be a striking +confirmation from the researches of Marsigli [113] in 1706. For this +naturalist, having the opportunity of observing freshly-taken red +coral, saw that its branches were beset with what looked like +delicate and beautiful flowers each having eight petals. It was +true that these "flowers" could protrude and retract themselves, +but their motions were hardly more extensive, or more varied, than +those of the leaves of the sensitive plant; and therefore they +could not be held to militate against the conclusion so strongly +suggested by their form and their grouping upon the branches of a +tree-like structure. + +Twenty years later, a pupil of Marsigli, the young Marseilles +physician, Peyssonel, conceived the desire to study these singular +sea-plants, and was sent by the French Government on a mission to +the Mediterranean for that purpose. The pupil undertook the +investigation full of confidence in the ideas of his master, but +being able to see and think for himself, he soon discovered that +those ideas by no means altogether corresponded with reality. In +an essay entitled "Traite du Corail," which was communicated to +the French Academy of Science, but which has never been published, +Peyssonel writes:-- + +"Je fis fleurir le corail dans des vases pleins d'eau de mer, et +j'observai que ce que nous croyons etre la fleur de cette pretendue +plante n'etait au vrai, qu'un insecte semblable a une petite Ortie +ou Poulpe. J'avais le plaisir de voir remuer les pattes, ou pieds, +de cette Ortie, et ayant mis le vase plein d'eau ou le corail etait +a une douce chaleur aupres du feu, tous les petits insectes +s'epanouirent.--L'Ortie sortie etend les pieds, et forme ce que M. +de Marsigli et moi avions pris pour les petales de la fleur. Le +calice de cette pretendue fleur est le corps meme de l'animal +avance et sorti hors de la cellule."*[114] + + +* This extract from Peyssonel's manuscript is given by M. Lacaze +Duthiers in his valuable Histoire Naturelle du Corail (1866). + + +The comparison of the flowers of the coral to a "petite ortie," or +"little nettle," is perfectly just, but needs explanation. "Ortie +de mer," or "sea-nettle," is, in fact, the French appellation for +our "sea-anemone," a creature with which everybody, since the great +aquarium mania, must have become familiar, even to the limits of +boredom. In 1710, the great naturalist, Reaumur,[115] had written a +memoir for the express purpose of demonstrating that these "orties" +are animals; and with this important paper Peyssonel must +necessarily have been familiar. Therefore, when he declared the +"flowers" of the red coral to be little "orties," it was the same +thing as saying that they were animals of the same general nature +as sea-anemones. But to Peyssonel's contemporaries this was an +extremely startling announcement. It was hard to imagine the +existence of such a thing as an association of animals into a +structure with stem and branches altogether like a plant, and fixed +to the soil as a plant is fixed; and the naturalists of that day +preferred not to imagine it. Even Reaumur could not bring himself +to accept the notion, and France being blessed with Academicians, +whose great function (as the late Bishop Wilson [116] and an eminent +modern writer [117] have so well shown) is to cause sweetness and +light to prevail, and to prevent such unmannerly fellows as Peyssonel +from blurting out unedifying truths, they suppressed him; and, as +aforesaid, his great work remained in manuscript, and may at this +day be consulted by the curious in that state, in the Bibliotheque +du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Peyssonel, who evidently was a +person of savage and untameable disposition, so far from +appreciating the kindness of the Academicians in giving him time to +reflect upon the unreasonableness, not to say rudeness, of making +public statements in opposition to the views of some of the most +distinguished of their body, seems bitterly to have resented the +treatment he met with. For he sent all further communications to +the Royal Society of London, which never had, and it is to be hoped +never will have, anything of an academic constitution; and finally +he took himself off to Guadaloupe, and became lost to science +altogether. + +Fifteen or sixteen years after the date of Peyssonel's suppressed +paper, the Abbe Trembley [118] published his wonderful researches upon +the fresh-water Hydra. Bernard de Jussieu [119] and Guettard [120] +followed them up by like inquiries upon the marine sea-anemones and +corallines; Reaumur, convinced against his will of the entire justice +of Peyssonel's views, adopted them, and made him a half-and-half +apology in the preface to the next published volume of the +"Memoires pour servir l'Histoire des Insectes;" and, from this time +forth, Peyssonel's doctrine that corals are the work of animal +organisms has been part of the body of established scientific +truth. + +Peyssonel, in the extract from his memoir already cited, compares +the flower-like animal of the coral to a "poulpe," which is the +French form of the name "polypus,"--"the many-footed,"--which the +ancient naturalists gave to the soft-bodied cuttlefishes, which, +like the coral animal, have eight arms, or tentacles, disposed +around a central mouth. Reaumur, admitting the analogy indicated +by Peyssonel, gave the name of polypes, not only to the sea- +anemone, the coral animal, and the fresh-water Hydra, but to what +are now known as the Polyzoa, and he termed the skeleton which they +fabricate a "polypier," or "polypidom." + +The progress of discovery, since Reaumur's time, has made us very +completely acquainted with the structure and habits of all these +polypes. We know that, among the sea-anemones and coral-forming +animals, each poylpe has a mouth leading to a stomach, which is +open at its inner end, and thus communicates freely with the +general cavity of the body; that the tentacles placed round the +mouth are hollow, and that they perform the part of arms in seizing +and capturing prey. It is known that many of these creatures are +capable of being multiplied by artificial division, the divided +halves growing, after a time, into complete and separate animals; +and that many are able to perform a very similar process naturally, +in such a manner that one polype may, by repeated incomplete +divisions, give rise to a sort of sheet, or turf, formed by +innumerable connected, and yet independent, descendants. Or, what +is still more common, a polype may throw out buds, which are +converted into polypes, or branches bearing polypes, until a tree- +like mass, sometimes of very considerable size, is formed. + +This is what happens in the case of the red coral of commerce. A +minute polype, fixed to the rocky bottom of the deep sea, grows up +into a branched trunk. The end of every branch and twig is +terminated by a polype; and all the polypes are connected together +by a fleshy substance, traversed by innumerable canals which place +each polype in communication with every other, and carry +nourishment to the substance of the supporting stem. It is a sort +of natural cooperative store, every polype helping the whole, at +the same time as it helps itself. The interior of the stem, like +that of the branches, is solidified by the deposition of carbonate +of lime in its tissue, somewhat in the same fashion as our own +bones are formed of animal matter impregnated with lime salts; and +it is this dense skeleton (usually turned red by a peculiar +colouring matter) cleared of the soft animal investment, as the +hard wood of a tree might be stripped of its bark, which is the red +coral. + +In the case of the red coral, the hard skeleton belongs to the +interior of the stem and branches only; but in the commoner white +corals, each polype has a complete skeleton of its own. These +polypes are sometimes solitary, in which case the whole skeleton is +represented by a single cup, with partitions radiating from its +centre to its circumference. When the polypes formed by budding or +division remain associated, the polypidom is sometimes made up of +nothing but an aggregation of these cups, while at other times the +cups are at once separated and held together, by an intermediate +substance, which represents the branches of the red coral. The red +coral polype again is a comparatively rare animal, inhabiting a +limited area, the skeleton of which has but a very insignificant +mass; while the white corals are very common, occur in almost all +seas, and form skeletons which are sometimes extremely massive. + +With a very few exceptions, both the red and the white coral +polypes are, in their adult state, firmly adherent to the sea- +bottom; nor do their buds naturally become detached and locomotive. +But, in addition to budding and division, these creatures possess +the more ordinary methods of multiplication; and, at particular +seasons, they give rise to numerous eggs of minute size. Within +these eggs the young are formed, and they leave the egg in a +condition which has no sort of resemblance to the perfect animal. +It is, in fact, a minute oval body, many hundred times smaller than +the full grown creature, and it swims about with great activity by +the help of multitudes of little hair-like filaments, called cilia, +with which its body is covered. These cilia all lash the water in +one direction, and so drive the little body along as if it were +propelled by thousands of extremely minute paddles. After enjoying +its freedom for a longer or shorter time, and being carried either +by the force of its own cilia, or by currents which bear it along, +the embryo coral settles down to the bottom, loses its cilia, and +becomes fixed to the rock, gradually assuming the polype form and +growing up to the size of its parent. As the infant polypes of the +coral may retain this free and active condition for many hours, or +even days, and as a tidal or other current in the sea may easily +flow at the speed of two or even more miles in an hour, it is clear +that the embryo must often be transported to very considerable +distances from the parent. And it is easily understood how a +single polype, which may give rise to hundreds, or perhaps +thousands, of embryos, may, by this process of partly active and +partly passive migration, cover an immense surface with its +offspring. + +The masses of coral which may be formed by the assemblages of +polypes which spring by budding, or by dividing, from a single +polype, occasionally attain very considerable dimensions. Such +skeletons are sometimes great plates, many feet long and several +feet in thickness; or they may form huge half globes, like the +brainstone corals, or may reach the magnitude of stout shrubs or +even small trees. There is reason to believe that such masses as +these take a long time to form, and hence that the age a polype +tree, or polype turf, may attain, may be considerable. But, sooner +or later, the coral polypes, like all other things, die; the soft +flesh decays, while the skeleton is left as a stony mass at the +bottom of the sea, where it retains its integrity for a longer or a +shorter time, according as its position affords more or less +protection from the wear and tear of the waves. + +The polypes which give rise to the white coral are found, as has +been said, in the seas of all parts of the world; but in the +temperate and cold oceans they are scattered and comparatively +small in size, so that the skeletons of those which die do not +accumulate in any considerable quantity. But it is otherwise in +the greater part of the ocean which lies in the warmer parts of the +world, comprised within a distance of about eighteen hundred miles +on each side of the equator. Within the zone thus bounded, by far +the greater part of the ocean is inhabited by coral polypes, which +not only form very strong and large skeletons, but associate +together into great masses, like the thickets and the meadow turf, +or, better still, the accumulations of peat, to which plants give +rise on dry land. These masses of stony matter, heaped up beneath +the waters of the ocean, become as dangerous to mariners as so much +ordinary rock, and to these, as to the common rock ridges, the +seaman gives the name of "reefs." + +Such coral reefs cover many thousand square miles in the Pacific +and in the Indian Oceans. There is one reef, or rather great +series of reefs, called the Barrier Reef, which stretches, almost +continuously, for more than eleven hundred miles off the east coast +of Australia. Multitudes of the islands in the Pacific are either +reefs themselves, or are surrounded by reefs. The Red Sea is in +many parts almost a maze of such reefs, and they abound no less in +the West Indies, along the coast of Florida, and even as far north +as the Bahama Islands. But it is a very remarkable circumstance +that, within the area of what we may call the "coral zone," there +are no coral reefs upon the west coast of America, nor upon the +west coast of Africa; and it is a general fact that the reefs are +interrupted, or absent, opposite the mouths of great rivers. The +causes of this apparent caprice in the distribution of coral reefs +are not far to seek. The polypes which fabricate them require for +their vigorous growth a temperature which must not fall below 68 +degrees Fahrenheit all the year round, and this temperature is only +to be found within the distance on each side of the equator which +has been mentioned, or thereabouts. But even within the coral zone +this degree of warmth is not everywhere to be had. On the west +coast of America, and on the corresponding coast of Africa, the +currents of cold water from the icy regions which surround the +South Pole set northward, and it appears to be due to their cooling +influence that the sea in these regions is free from the reef +builders. Again, the coral polypes cannot live in water which is +rendered brackish by floods from the land, or which is perturbed by +mud from the same source, and hence it is that they cease to exist +opposite the mouths of rivers, which damage them in both these +ways. + +Such is the general distribution of the reef-building corals, but +there are some very interesting and singular circumstances to be +observed in the conformation of the reefs, when we consider them +individually. The reefs, in fact, are of three different kinds; +some of them stretch out from the shore, almost like a prolongation +of the beach, covered only by shallow water, and in the case of an +island, surrounding it like a fringe of no considerable breadth. +These are termed "fringing reefs." Others are separated by a +channel which may attain a width of many miles, and a depth of +twenty or thirty fathoms or more, from the nearest land; and when +this land is an island, the reef surrounds it like a low wall, and +the sea between the reef and the land is, as it were, a moat inside +this wall. Such reefs as these are called "encircling" when they +surround an island; and "barrier" reefs, when they stretch parallel +with the coast of a continent. In both these cases there is +ordinary dry land inside the reef, and separated from it only by a +narrower or a wider, a shallower or a deeper, space of sea, which +is called a "lagoon," or "inner passage." But there is a third kind +of reef, of very common occurrence in the Pacific and Indian +Oceans, which goes by the name of "atoll." This is, to all intents +and purposes, an encircling reef, without anything to encircle; or, +in other words, without an island in the middle of its lagoon. The +atoll has exactly the appearance of a vast, irregularly oval, or +circular, breakwater, enclosing smooth water in its midst. The +depth of the water in the lagoon rarely exceeds twenty or thirty +fathoms, but, outside the reef, it deepens with great rapidity to +two hundred or three hundred fathoms. The depth immediately +outside the barrier, or encircling, reefs, may also be very +considerable; but, at the outer edge of a fringing reef, it does +not amount usually to more than twenty or twenty-five fathoms; in +other words, from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty +feet. + +Thus, if the water of the ocean should be suddenly drained away, we +should see the atolls rising from the sea-bed like vast truncated +cones, and resembling so many volcanic craters, except that their +sides would be steeper than those of an ordinary volcano. In the +case of the encircling reefs, the cone, with the enclosed island, +would look like Vesuvius with Monte Nuovo within the old crater of +Somma;[121] while, finally, the island with a fringing reef would +have the appearance of an ordinary hill, or mountain, girded by a vast +parapet, within which would lie a shallow moat. And the dry bed of +the Pacific might afford grounds for an inhabitant of the moon to +speculate upon the extraordinary subterranean activity to which +these vast and numerous "craters" bore witness! + +When the structure of a fringing reef is investigated, the bottom +of the lagoon is found to be covered with fine whitish mud, which +results from the breaking up of the dead corals. Upon this muddy +floor there lie, here and there, growing corals, or occasionally +great blocks of dead coral, which have been torn by storms from the +outer edge of the reef, and washed into the lagoon. Shellfish and +worms of various kinds abound; and fish, some of which prey upon +the coral, sport in the deeper pools. But the corals which are to +be seen growing in the shallow waters of the lagoon are of a +different kind from those which abound on the outer edge of the +reef, and of which the reef is built up. Close to the seaward edge +of the reef, over which, even in calm weather, a surf almost always +breaks, the coral rock is encrusted with a thick coat of a singular +vegetable organism, which contains a great deal of lime--the so- +called Nullipora. Beyond this, in the part of the edge of the reef +which is always covered by the breaking waves, the living, true, +reef-polypes make their appearance; and, in different forms, coat +the steep seaward face of the reef to a depth of one hundred or +even one hundred and fifty feet. Beyond this depth the sounding- +lead rests, not upon the wall-like face of the reef, but on the +ordinary shelving sea-bottom. And the distance to which a fringing +reef extends from the land corresponds with that at which the sea +has a depth of twenty or five-and-twenty fathoms. + +If, as we have supposed, the sea could be suddenly withdrawn from +around an island provided with a fringing reef, such as the +Mauritius,[122] the reef would present the aspect of a terrace, +its seaward face, one hundred feet or more high, blooming with the +animal flowers of the coral, while its surface would be hollowed +out into a shallow and irregular moat-like excavation. + +The coral mud, which occupies the bottom of the lagoon, and with +which all the interstices of the coral skeletons which accumulate +to form the reef are filled up, does not proceed from the washing +action of the waves alone; innumerable fishes, and other creatures +which prey upon the coral, add a very important contribution of +finely-triturated calcareous matter; and the corals and mud +becoming incorporated together, gradually harden and give rise to a +sort of limestone rock, which may vary a good deal in texture. +Sometimes it remains friable and chalky, but, more often, the +infiltration of water, charged with carbonic acid, dissolves some +of the calcareous matter, and deposits it elsewhere in the +interstices of the nascent rock, thus glueing and cementing the +particles together into a hard mass; or it may even dissolve the +carbonate of lime more extensively, and re-deposit it in a +crystalline form. On the beach of the lagoon, where the coral sand +is washed into layers by the action of the waves, its grains become +thus fused together into strata of a limestone, so hard that they +ring when struck with a hammer, and inclined at a gentle angle, +corresponding with that of the surface of the beach. The hard +parts of the many animals which live upon the reef become imbedded +in this coral limestone, so that a block may be full of shells of +bivalves and univalves, or of sea urchins; and even sometimes +encloses the eggs of turtles in a state of petrification. The +active and vigorous growth of the reef goes on only at the seaward +margins, where the polypes are exposed to the wash of the surf, and +are thereby provided with an abundant supply of air and of food. +The interior portion of the reef may be regarded as almost wholly +an accumulation of dead skeletons. Where a river comes down from +the land there is a break in the reef, for the reasons which have +been already mentioned. + +The origin and mode of formation of a fringing reef, such as that +just described, are plain enough. The embryos of the coral polypes +have fixed themselves upon the submerged shore of the island, as +far out as they could live, namely, to a depth of twenty or twenty- +five fathoms. One generation has succeeded another, building +itself up upon the dead skeletons of its predecessor. The mass has +been consolidated by the infiltration of coral mud, and hardened by +partial solution and redeposition, until a great rampart of coral +rock one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet high on its seaward +face has been formed all round the island, with only such gaps as +result from the outflow of rivers, in the place of sally-ports. + +The structure of the rocky accumulation in the encircling reefs and +in the atolls is essentially the same as in the fringing reef. +But, in addition to the differences of depth inside and out, they +present some other peculiarities. These reefs, and especially the +atolls, are usually interrupted at one part of their circumference, +and this part is always situated on the leeward side of the reef, +or that which is the more sheltered side. Now, as all these reefs +are situated within the region in which the tradewinds prevail, it +follows that, on the north side of the equator, where the trade- +wind is a northeasterly wind, the opening of the reef is on the +southwest side: while in the southern hemisphere, where the trade- +winds blow from the southeast, the opening lies to the northwest. +The curious practical result follows from this structure, that the +lagoons to these reefs really form admirable harbours, if a ship +can only get inside them. But the main difference between the +encircling reefs and the atolls, on the one hand, and the fringing +reefs on the other, lies in the fact of the much greater depth of +water on the seaward faces of the former. As a consequence of this +fact, the whole of this face is not, as it is in the case of the +fringing reef, covered with living coral polypes. For, as we have +seen, these polypes cannot live at a greater depth than about +twenty-five fathoms; and actual observation has shown that while, +down to this depth, the sounding-lead will bring up branches of +live coral from the outer wall of such a reef, at a greater depth +it fetches to the surface nothing but dead coral and coral sand. +We must, therefore, picture to ourselves an atoll, or an encircling +reef, as fringed for one hundred feet, or more, from its summit, +with coral polypes busily engaged in fabricating coral; while, +below this comparatively narrow belt, its surface is a bare and +smooth expanse of coral sand, supported upon and within a core of +coral limestone. Thus, if the bed of the Pacific were suddenly +laid bare, as was just now supposed, the appearance of the reef- +mountains would be exactly the reverse of that presented by many +high mountains on land. For these are white with snow at the top, +while their bases are clothed with an abundant and gaudily-coloured +vegetation. But the coral cones would look grey and barren below, +while their summits would be gay with a richly-coloured parterre of +flowerlike coral polypes. + +The practical difficulties of sounding upon, and of bringing up +portions of, the seaward face of an atoll or of an encircling reef, +are so great, in consequence of the constant and dangerous swell +which sets towards it, that no exact information concerning the +depth to which the reefs are composed of coral has yet been +obtained. There is no reason to doubt, however, that the reef-cone +has the same structure from its summit to its base, and that its +sea-wall is throughout mainly composed of dead coral. + +And now arises a serious difficulty. If the coral polypes cannot +live at a greater depth than one hundred or one hundred and fifty +feet, how can they have built up the base of the reef-cone, which +may be two thousand feet, or more, below the surface of the sea? + +In order to get over this objection, it was at one time supposed +that the reef-building polypes had settled upon the summits of a +chain of submarine mountains. But what is there in physical +geography to justify the assumption of the existence of a chain of +mountains stretching for one thousand miles or more, and so nearly +of the same height, that none should rise above the level of the +sea, nor fall one hundred and fifty feet below that level? + +How, again, on this hypothesis, are atolls to be accounted for, +unless, as some have done, we take refuge in the wild supposition +that every atoll corresponds with the crater of a submarine +volcano? And what explanation does it afford of the fact that, in +some parts of the ocean, only atolls and encircling reefs occur, +while others present none but fringing reefs? + +These and other puzzling facts remained insoluble until the +publication, in the year 1840, of Mr. Darwin's famous work on coral +reefs;[123] in which a key was given to all the difficult problems +connected with the subject, and every difficulty was shown to be +capable of solution by deductive reasoning from a happy combination +of certain well-established geological and biological truths. Mr. +Darwin, in fact, showed that, so long as the level of the sea +remains unaltered in any area in which coral reefs are being +formed, or if the level of the sea relatively to that of the land +is falling, the only reefs which can be formed are fringing reefs. +While if, on the contrary, the level of the sea is rising +relatively to that of the land, at a rate not faster than that at +which the upward growth of the coral can keep pace with it, the +reef will gradually pass from the condition of a fringing, into +that of an encircling or barrier reef. And, finally, that if the +relative level of the sea rise so much that the encircled land is +completely submerged, the reef must necessarily pass into the +condition of an atoll. + +For, suppose the relative level of the sea to remain stationary, +after a fringing reef has reached that distance from the land at +which the depth of water amounts to one hundred and fifty feet. +Then the reef cannot extend seaward by the migration of coral +germs, because these coral germs would find the bottom of the sea +to be too deep for them to live in. And the only manner in which +the reef could extend outwards, would be by the gradual +accumulation, at the foot of its seaward face, of a talus of coral +fragments torn off by the violence of the waves, which talus might, +in course of time, become high enough to bring its upper surface +within the limits of coral growth, and in that manner provide a +sort of factitious sea-bottom upon which the coral embryos might +perch. If, on the other hand, the level of the sea were slowly and +gradually lowered, it is clear that the parts of its bottom +originally beyond the limit of coral growth would gradually be +brought within the required distance of the surface, and thus the +reef might be indefinitely extended. But this process would give +rise neither to an encircling reef nor to an atoll, but to a broad +belt of upheaved coral rock, increasing the dimensions of the dry +land, and continuous seawards with the fresh fringing reef. + +Suppose, however, that the sea-level rose instead of falling, at +the same slow and gradual rate at which we know it to be rising in +some parts of the world,--not more, in fact, than a few inches, or, +at most, a foot or two, in a hundred years. Then, while the reef +would be unable to extend itself seaward, the sea-bottom outside it +being gradually more and more removed from the depth at which the +life of the coral polypes is possible, it would be able to grow +upwards as fast as the sea rose. But the growth would take place +almost exclusively around the circumference of the reef, this being +the only region in which the coral polypes would find the +conditions favourable for their existence. The bottom of the +lagoon would be raised, in the main, only by the coral debris and +coral mud, formed in the manner already described; consequently, +the margins of the reef would rise faster than the bottom, or, in +other words, the lagoon would constantly become deeper. And, at +the same time, it would gradually increase in breadth; as the +rising sea, covering more of the land, would occupy a wider space +between the edge of the reef and what remained of the land. Thus +the rising sea would eventually convert a large island with a +fringing reef into a small island surrounded by an encircling reef. +And it will be obvious that when the rising of the sea has gone so +far as completely to cover the highest points of the island, the +reef will have passed into the condition of an atoll. + +But how is it possible that the relative level of the land and sea +should be altered to this extent? Clearly, only in one of two +ways: either the sea must have risen over those areas which are now +covered by atolls and encircling reefs; or, the land upon which the +sea rests must have been depressed to a corresponding extent. + +If the sea has risen, its rise must have taken place over the whole +world simultaneously, and it must have risen to the same height +over all parts of the coral zone. Grounds have been shown for the +belief that the general level of the sea may have been different at +different times; it has been suggested, for example, that the +accumulation of ice about the poles during one of the cold periods +of the earth's history necessarily implies a diminution in the +volume of the sea proportioned to the amount of its water thus +permanently locked up in the Arctic and Antarctic ice-cellars; +while, in the warm periods, the greater or less disappearance of +the polar ice-cap implies a corresponding addition of water to the +ocean. And no doubt this reasoning must be admitted to be sound in +principle; though it is very hard to say what practical effect the +additions and subtractions thus made have had on the level of the +ocean; inasmuch as such additions and subtractions might be either +intensified or nullified, by contemporaneous changes in the level +of the land. And no one has yet shown that any such great melting +of polar ice, and consequent raising of the level of the water of +the ocean, has taken place since the existing atolls began to be +formed. + +In the absence of any evidence that the sea has ever risen to the +extent required to give rise to the encircling reefs and the +atolls, Mr. Darwin adopted the opposite hypothesis, viz., that the +land has undergone extensive and slow depression in those +localities in which these structures exist. + +It seems, at first, a startling paradox, to suppose that the land +is less fixed than the sea; but that such is the case is the +uniform testimony of geology. Beds of sandstone or limestone, +thousands of feet thick, and all full of marine remains, occur in +various parts of the earth's surface, and prove, beyond a doubt, +that when these beds were formed, that portion of the sea-bottom +which they then occupied underwent a slow and gradual depression to +a distance which cannot have been less than the thickness of those +beds, and may have been very much greater. In supposing, +therefore, that the great areas of the Pacific and of the Indian +Ocean, over which atolls and encircling reefs are found scattered, +have undergone a depression of some hundreds, or, it may be, +thousands of feet, Mr. Darwin made a supposition which had nothing +forced or improbable, but was entirely in accordance with what we +know to have taken place over similarly extensive areas, in other +periods of the world's history. But Mr. Darwin subjected his +hypothesis to an ingenious indirect test. If his view be correct, +it is clear that neither atolls, nor encircling reefs, should be +found in those portions of the ocean in which we have reason to +believe, on independent grounds, that the sea-bottom has long been +either stationary, or slowly rising. Now it is known that, as a +general rule, the level of the land is either stationary, or is +undergoing a slow upheaval, in the neighborhood of active +volcanoes; and, therefore, neither atolls nor encircling reefs +ought to be found in regions in which volcanoes are numerous and +active. And this turns out to be the case. Appended to Mr. +Darwin's great work on coral reefs, there is a map on which atolls +and encircling reefs are indicated by one colour, fringing reefs by +another, and active volcanoes by a third. And it is at once +obvious that the lines of active volcanoes lie around the margins +of the areas occupied by the atolls and the encircling reefs. It +is exactly as if the upheaving volcanic agencies had lifted up the +edges of these great areas, while their centres had undergone a +corresponding depression. An atoll area may, in short, be pictured +as a kind of basin, the margins of which have been pushed up by the +subterranean forces, to which the craters of the volcanoes have, at +intervals, given vent. + +Thus we must imagine the area of the Pacific now covered by the +Polynesian Archipelago, as having been, at some former time, +occupied by large islands, or, may be, by a great continent, with +the ordinarily diversified surface of plain, and hill, and mountain +chain. The shores of this great land were doubtless fringed by +coral reefs; and, as it slowly underwent depression, the hilly +regions, converted into islands, became, at first, surrounded by +fringing reefs, and then, as depression went on, these became +converted into encircling reefs, and these, finally, into atolls, +until a maze of reefs and coral-girdled islets took the place of +the original land masses. + +Thus the atolls and the encircling reefs furnish us with clear, +though indirect, evidence of changes in the physical geography of +large parts of the earth's surface; and even, as my lamented +friend, the late Professor Jukes,[124] has suggested, give us +indications of the manner in which some of the most puzzling facts +connected with the distribution of animals have been brought about. +For example, Australia and New Guinea are separated by Torres +Straits, a broad belt of sea one hundred or one hundred and twenty +miles wide. Nevertheless, there is in many respects a curious +resemblance between the land animals which inhabit New Guinea and +the land animals which inhabit Australia. But, at the same time, +the marine shellfish which are found in the shallow waters of the +shores of New Guinea are quite different from those which are met +with upon the coasts of Australia. Now, the eastern end of Torres +Straits is full of atolls, which, in fact, form the northern +termination of the Great Barrier Reef which skirts the eastern +coast of Australia. It follows, therefore, that the eastern end of +Torres Straits is an area of depression, and it is very possible, +and on many grounds highly probable, that, in former times, +Australia and New Guinea were directly connected together, and that +Torres Straits did not exist. If this were the case, the existence +of cassowaries and of marsupial quadrupeds, both in New Guinea and +in Australia, becomes intelligible; while the difference between +the littoral molluscs of the north and the south shores of Torres +Straits is readily explained by the great probability that, when +the depression in question took place, and what was, at first, an +arm of the sea became converted into a strait separating Australia +from New Guinea, the northern shore of this new sea became tenanted +with marine animals from the north, while the southern shore was +peopled by immigrants from the already existing marine Australian +fauna. + +Inasmuch as the growth of the reef depends upon that of successive +generations of coral polypes, and as each generation takes a +certain time to grow to its full size, and can only separate its +calcareous skeleton from the water in which it lives at a certain +rate, it is clear that the reefs are records not only of changes in +physical geography, but of the lapse of time. It is by no means +easy, however, to estimate the exact value of reef chronology, and +the attempts which have been made to determine the rate at which a +reef grows vertically have yielded anything but precise results. A +cautious writer, Mr. Dana,[125] whose extensive study of corals and +coral reefs makes him an eminently competent judge, states his +conclusion in the following terms:-- + +"The rate of growth of the common branching madrepore is not over +one and a half inches a year. As the branches are open, this would +not be equivalent to more than half an inch in height of solid +coral for the whole surface covered by the madrepore; and, as they +are also porous, to not over three-eighths of an inch of solid +limestone. But a coral plantation has large bare patches without +corals, and the coral sands are widely distributed by currents, +part of them to depths over one hundred feet where there are no +living corals; not more than one-sixth of the surface of a reef +region is, in fact, covered with growing species. This reduces the +three-eighths to ONE-SIXTEENTH. Shells and other organic relics +may contribute one-fourth as much as corals. At the outside, the +average upward increase of the whole reef-ground per year would not +exceed ONE-EIGHTH of an inch. + +"Now some reefs are at least two thousand feet thick, which at one- +eighth of an inch a year, corresponds to one hundred and ninety-two +thousand years."* + + +* Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 591. + + +Halve, or quarter, this estimate if you will, in order to be +certain of erring upon the right side, and still there remains a +prodigious period during which the ancestors of existing coral +polypes have been undisturbedly at work; and during which, +therefore, the climatal conditions over the coral area must have +been much what they are now. + +And all this lapse of time has occurred within the most recent +period of the history of the earth. The remains of reefs formed by +coral polypes of different kinds from those which exist now, enter +largely into the composition of the limestones of the Jurassic +period;[126] and still more widely different coral polypes have +contributed their quota to the vast thickness of the carboniferous +and Devonian strata. Then as regards the latter group of rocks in +America, the high authority already quoted tells us:-- + +"The Upper Helderberg period is eminently the coral reef period of +the palaeozoic ages. Many of the rocks abound in coral, and are as +truly coral reefs as the modern reefs of the Pacific. The corals +are sometimes standing on the rocks in the position they had when +growing: others are lying in fragments, as they were broken and +heaped by the waves; and others were reduced to a compact limestone +by the finer trituration before consolidation into rock. This +compact variety is the most common kind among the coral reef rocks +of the present seas; and it often contains but few distinct +fossils, although formed in water that abounded in life. At the +fall of the Ohio, near Louisville, there is a magnificent display +of the old reef. Hemispherical Favosites, five or six feet in +diameter, lie there nearly as perfect as when they were covered by +their flowerlike polypes; and besides these, there are various +branching corals, and a profusion of Cyathophyllia, or cup- +corals."* + + +* Dana, Manual of Geology, p. 272. + + +Thus, in all the great periods of the earth's history of which we +know anything, a part of the then living matter has had the form of +polypes, competent to separate from the water of the sea the +carbonate of lime necessary for their own skeletons. Grain by +grain, and particle by particle, they have built up vast masses of +rock, the thickness of which is measured by hundreds of feet, and +their area by thousands of square miles. The slow oscillations of +the crust of the earth, producing great changes in the distribution +of land and water, have often obliged the living matter of the +coral-builders to shift the locality of its operations; and, by +variation and adaptation to these modifications of condition, its +forms have as often changed. The work it has done in the past is, +for the most part, swept away, but fragments remain, and, if there +were no other evidence, suffice to prove the general constancy of +the operations of Nature in this world, through periods of almost +inconceivable duration. + + + +NOTES + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +[1] +Autobiography: Huxley's account of this sketch, written in 1889, is +as follows: "A man who is bringing out a series of portraits of +celebrities, with a sketch of their career attached, has bothered +me out of my life for something to go with my portrait, and to +escape the abominable bad taste of some of the notices, I have done +that." + +[2] +pre-Boswellian epoch: the time before Boswell. James Boswell +(1740-1795) wrote the famous Life of Samuel Johnson. Mr. Leslie +Stephen declares that this book "became the first specimen of a new +literary type." "It is a full-length portrait of a man's domestic +life with enough picturesque detail to enable us to see him through +the eyes of private friendship. . . ." A number of biographers +since Boswell have imitated his method; and Leslie Stephen believes +that "we owe it in some degree to his example that we have such +delightful books as Lockhart's Life of Scott or Mr. Trevelyan's +Life of Macaulay." + +[3] +"Bene qui latuit, bene vixit": from Ovid. He who has kept himself +well hidden, has lived well. + +[4] +Prince George of Cambridge: the grandson of King George III, second +Duke of Cambridge, and Commander-in-chief of the British Army. + +[5] +Mr. Herbert Spencer (1820--1903): a celebrated English philosopher +and powerful advocate of the doctrine of evolution. Spencer is +regarded as one of the most profound thinkers of modern times. He +was one of Huxley's closest friends. + +[6] +in partibus infidelium: in the domain of the unbelievers. + +[7] +"sweet south upon a bed of violets." Cf. Twelfth Night, Act I, sc. +I, l. 5. + +O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound +That breathes upon a bank of violets, +Stealing and giving odour. + +For the reading "sweet south" instead of "sweet sound," see Rolfe's +edition of Twelfth Night. + +[8] +"Lehrjahre": apprenticeship. + +Charing Cross School of Medicine: a school connected with the +Charing Cross Hospital in the Strand, London. + +[9] +Nelson: Horatio Nelson, a celebrated English Admiral born in +Norfolk, England, 1758, and died on board the Victory at Trafalgar, +1805. It was before the battle off Cape Trafalgar that Nelson +hoisted his famous signal, "England expects every man will do his +duty." Cf. Tennyson's Ode to the Duke of Wellington, stanza VI, +for a famous tribute to Nelson. + +[10] +middies: abbreviated form for midshipmen. + +[11] +Suites a Buffon: sequels to Buffon. Buffon (1707-1781) was a +French naturalist who wrote many volumes on science. + +[12] +Linnean Society: a scientific society formed in 1788 under the +auspices of several fellows of the Royal Society. + +[13] +Royal Society: The Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge; +the oldest scientific society in Great Britain, and one of the +oldest in Europe. It was founded by Charles II, in 1660, its +nucleus being an association of learned men already in existence. +It is supposed to be identical with the Invisible College which +Boyle mentions in 1646. It was incorporated under the name of The +Royal Society in 1661. The publications of the Royal Society are +called Philosophical Transactions. The society has close +connection with the government, and has assisted the government in +various important scientific undertakings among which may be +mentioned Parry's North Pole expedition. The society also +distributes $20,000 yearly for the promotion of scientific +research. + +[14] +Rastignac: a character in Le Pere Goriot. At the close of the +story Rastignac says, "A nous deux, maintenant":--Henceforth there +is war between us. + +[15] +Pere Goriot: a novel of Balzac's with a plot similar to King Lear. + +[16] +Professor Tyndall (1820-1893): a distinguished British physicist +and member of the Royal Society. He explored with Huxley the +glaciers of Switzerland. His work in electricity, radiant heat, +light and acoustics gave him a foremost place in science. + +[17] +Ecclesiastical spirit: the spirit manifested by the clergy of +England in Huxley's time against the truths of science. The clergy +considered scientific truth to be disastrous to religious truth. +Huxley's attitude toward the teaching of religious truth is +illuminated by this quotation, which he uses to explain his own +position: "I have the fullest confidence that in the reading and +explaining of the Bible, what the children will be taught will be +the great truths of Christian Life and conduct, which all of us +desire they should know, and that no effort will be made to cram +into their poor little minds, theological dogmas which their tender +age prevents them from understanding." Huxley defines his idea of +a church as a place in which, "week by week, services should be +devoted, not to the iteration of abstract propositions in theology, +but to the setting before men's minds of an ideal of true, just and +pure living; a place in which those who are weary of the burden of +daily cares should find a moment's rest in the contemplation of the +higher life which is possible for all, though attained by so few; a +place in which the man of strife and of business should have time +to think how small, after all, are the rewards he covets compared +with peace and charity." + +[18] +New Reformation: Huxley writes: "We are in the midst of a gigantic +movement greater than that which preceded and produced the +Reformation, and really only the continuation of that movement. . . . +But this organization will be the work of generations of men, +and those who further it most will be those who teach men to rest +in no lie, and to rest in no verbal delusion." + + + +ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE (1866) + + +[19] +On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge: from Method +and Results: also published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews. + +For the history of the times mentioned in this essay, see Green's +Short History of the English People. + +[20] +The very spot: St. Martin's Borough Hall and Public Library, on +Charing Cross Road, near Trafalgar Square. + +[21] +Defoe (1661-1731): an English novelist and political writer. On +account of his political writings Defoe was sentenced to stand in +the pillory, and to be "imprisoned during the Queen's pleasure." +During this imprisonment he wrote many articles. Later in life he +wrote Robinson Crusoe, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll +Flanders, Journal of the Plague Year, and other books less well +known. + +[22] +unholy cursing and crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys: +John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, and Sir Charles Sedley, +were both friends of Charles II, and were noted for biting wit and +profligacy. Green, in his Short History of the English People, +thus describes them: "Lord Rochester was a fashionable poet, and +the titles of some of his poems are such as no pen of our day could +copy. Sir Charles Sedley was a fashionable wit, and the foulness +of his words made even the porters in the Covent Garden belt him +from the balcony when he ventured to address them." + +[23] +Laud: Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud was born in 1573, and +beheaded at London in 1645. He was throughout the reign of Charles +I a staunch supporter of the King. He was impeached by the Long +Parliament in 1640 and executed on Tower Hill, in 1645. + +[24] +selenography: the scientific study of the moon with special +reference to its physical condition. + +[25] +Torricellian experiment: a reference to the discovery of the +principle of the barometer by the Italian, Torricelli, in 1643. + +[26] +Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Bacon endeavored to teach that +civilization cannot be brought to a high point except as man +applies himself to the study of the secrets of nature, and uses +these discoveries for inventions which will give him power over his +environment. The chief value of the work was that it called +attention to the uses of induction and to the experimental study of +facts. See Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy, page 243. + +[27] +The learned Dr. Wallis (1616-1703): Dr. Wallis is regarded as the +greatest of Newton's predecessors in mathematical history. His +works are numerous and are on a great variety of subjects. He was +one of the first members of the Royal Society. + +[28] +"New Philosophy": Bacon's ideas on science and philosophy as set +forth in his works. + +[29] +Royal Society: see note, page 11. + +[30] +Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1721): a distinguished natural philosopher +of England. Newton was elected a member of the Royal Society in +1672. His most important scientific accomplishment was the +establishing of the law of universal gravitation. The story of the +fall of the apple was first related by Voltaire to whom it was +given by Newton's niece. + +[31] +"Philosophical Transactions": the publications of the Royal +Society. + +[32] +Galileo (1564-1642): a famous Italian astronomer. His most noted +work was the construction of the thermometer and a telescope. He +discovered the satellites of Jupiter in 1610. In 1610, also, he +observed the sun's spots. His views were condemned by the Pope in +1616 and in 1633 he was forced by the Inquisition to abjure the +Copernican theory. + +[33] +Vesalius (1514-1564): a noted Belgian anatomist. + +[34] +Harvey (1578-1657): an English physiologist and anatomist. He is +noted especially for his discovery of the circulation of the blood. + +[35] +Subtle speculations: Selby gives examples from questions discussed +by Thomas Aquinas. Whether all angels belong to the same genus, +whether demons are evil by nature, or by will, whether they can +change one substance into another, . . . whether an angel can move +from one point to another without passing through intermediate +space. + +[36] +Schoolmen: a term used to designate the followers of scholasticism, +a philosophy of dogmatic religion which assumed a certain subject- +matter as absolute and unquestionable. The duty of the Schoolman +was to explain church doctrine; these explanations were +characterized by fine distinctions and by an absence of real +content. See Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy; also +Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology. + +[37] +"writ in water": an allusion to Keats' request that the words "Here +lies one whose name was writ in water" be his epitaph. The words +are inscribed on his tomb in the Protestant Cemetery at Rome. + +[38] +Lord Brouncker: The first president of the Royal Society after its +incorporation in 1662 was Lord Brouneker. + +[39] +revenant: ghost. + +[40] +Boyle: Robert Boyle (1627-1691): a British chemist and natural +philosopher who was noted especially for his discovery of Boyle's +law of the elasticity of air. + +[41] +Evelyn (1620-1706): an English author and member of the Royal +Society. His most important work is the Diary, valuable for the +full account which it gives of the manners and customs of the time. + +[42] +The Restoration: In English history the re-establishing of the +English monarchy with the return of King Charles II in 1660; by +extension the whole reign of Charles II: as, the dramatists of the +Restoration. Century Dictionary. + +[43] +Aladdin's lamps: a reference to the story of the Wonderful Lamp in +the Arabian Nights. The magic lamp brought marvelous good fortune +to the poor widow's son who possessed it. Cf. also Lowell's +Aladdin:-- + +When I was a beggarly boy, + And lived in a cellar damp, +I had not a friend or a toy, + But I had Aladdin's lamp; +When I could not sleep for the cold, + I had fire enough in my brain, +And builded, with roofs of gold, + My beautiful castles in Spain! + +[44] +"When in heaven the stars": from Tennyson's Specimens of a +Translation of the Iliad in Blank Verse. + +[45] +"increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate": Bacon's +statement of his purpose in writing the Advancement of Learning. + +[46] +For example, etc.: could the sentence beginning thus be written in +better form? + +[47] +Rumford (1738-1814): Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an eminent +scientist. Rumford was born in America and educated at Harvard. +Suspected of loyalty to the King at the time of the revolution, he +was imprisoned. Acquitted, he went to England where he became +prominent in politics and science. Invested with the title of +Count by the Holy Roman Empire, he chose Rumford for his title +after the name of the little New Hampshire town where he had +taught. He gave a large sum of money to Harvard College to found +the Rumford professorship of science. + +[48] +eccentric: out of the centre. + + + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION (1868) + + +[49] +A Liberal Education: from Science and Education; also published in +Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews. + +[50] +Ichabod: cf. 1 Sam. iv, 21. + +[51] +senior wranglership: in Cambridge University, England, one who has +attained the first class in the elementary division of the public +examination for honors in pure and mixed mathematics, commonly +called the mathematical tripos, those who compose the second rank +of honors being designated senior optimes, and those of the third +order junior optimes. The student taking absolutely the first +place in the mathematical tripos used to be called senior wrangler, +those following next in the same division being respectively termed +second, third, fourth, etc., wranglers. Century Dictionary. + +[52] +double-first: any candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in +Oxford University who takes first-class honors in both classics and +mathematics is said to have won a double-first. + +[53] +Retzsch (1779-1857): a well-known German painter and engraver. + +[54] +Test-Act: an English statute of 1673. It compelled all persons +holding office under the crown to take the oaths of supremacy and +of allegiance, to receive the sacrament according to the usage of +the Church of England, and to subscribe to the Declaration against +Transubstantiation. + +[55] +Poll: an abbreviation and transliteration of [Greek words], "the +mob"; university slang for the whole body of students taking merely +the degree of Bachelor of Arts, at Cambridge. + +[56] +pluck: the rejection of a student, after examinations, who does not +come up to the standard. + + + +ON A PIECE OF CHALK + + +[57] +On a Piece of Chalk: a lecture to working-men from Lay Sermons, +Addresses and Reviews. + +[58] +Needles of the Isle of Wight: the needles are three white, pointed +rocks of chalk, resting on dark-colored bases, and rising abruptly +from the sea to a height of 100 feet. Baedeker's Great Britain. + +[59] +Lulworth in Dorset, to Flamborough Head: Lulworth is on the +southern coast of England, west of the Isle of Wight: Flamborough +Head is on the northeastern coast of England and extends into the +German Ocean. + +[60] +Weald: a name given to an oval-shaped chalk area in England, +beginning near the Straits of Dover, and extending into the +counties of Kent, Surrey, Hants, and Sussex. + +[61] +Lieut. Brooke: Brooke devised an apparatus for deep-sea sounding +from which the weight necessary to sink the instrument rapidly, was +detached when it reached the bottom. The object was to relieve the +strain on the rope caused by rapid soundings. Improved apparatuses +have been invented since the time of Brooke. + +[62] +Ehrenberg (1795-1876): a German naturalist noted for his studies of +Infusoria. + +[63] +Bailey of West Point (1811-1857): an American naturalist noted for +his researches in microscopy. + +[64] +enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable: the first Atlantic +telegraph-cable between England and America was laid in 1858 by +Cyrus W. Field of New York. Messages were sent over it for a few +weeks; then it ceased to act. A permanent cable was laid by Mr. +Field in 1866. + +[65] +Dr. Wallich (1786-1854): a Danish botanist and member of the Royal +Society. + +[66] +Mr. Sorby: President of the Geological Society of England, and +author of many papers on subjects connected with physical +geography. + +[67] +Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875): a British geologist, and one of the +first to uphold Darwin's Origin of Species. + +[68] +Echinus: the sea-urchin; an animal which dwells in a spheroidal +shell built up from polygonal plates, and covered with sharp +spines. + +[69] +Somme: a river of northern France which flows into the English +Channel northeast of Dieppe. + +[70] +the chipped flints of Hoxne and Amiens: the rude instruments which +were made by primitive man were of chipped flint. Numerous +discoveries of large flint implements have been made in the north +of France, near Amiens, and in England. The first noted flint +implements were discovered in Hoxne, Suffolk, England, 1797. Cf. +Evans' Ancient Stone Implements and Lyell's Antiquity of Man. + +[71] +Rev. Mr. Gunn (1800-1881): an English naturalist. Mr. Gunn sent +from Tasmania a large number of plants and animals now in the +British Museum. + +[72] +"the whirligig of time": cf. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act V, se. +I, l. 395. + +[73] +Euphrates and Hiddekel: cf. Genesis ii, 14. + +[74] +the great river, the river of Babylon: cf. Genesis xv, 18 + +[75] +Without haste, but without rest: from Goethe's Zahme Xenien. In a +letter to his sister, Huxley says: "And then perhaps by the +following of my favorite motto,-- + +"'Wie das Gestirn, +Ohne Hast, +Ohne Rast'-- + +something may be done, and some of Sister Lizzie's fond +imaginations turn out not altogether untrue." The quotation entire +is as follows:-- + +Wie das Gestirn, +Ohne Hast, +Aber ohne Rast, +Drehe sich jeder +Um die eigne Last. + + + +THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION (1882) + + +[76] +The Principal Subjects of Education: an extract from the essay, +Science and Art in Relation to Education. + +[77] +this discussion: "this" refers to the last sentence in the +preceding paragraph, in which Huxley says that it will be +impossible to determine the amount of time to be given to the +principal subjects of education until it is determined "what the +principal subjects of education ought to be." + +[78] +Francis Bacon: cf. note [26]. + +[79] +the best chance of being happy: In connection with Huxley's work on +the London School Board, his biographer says that Huxley did not +regard "intellectual training only from the utilitarian point of +view; he insisted, e. g., on the value of reading for amusement as +one of the most valuable uses to hardworked people." + +[80] +"Harmony in grey": cf. with l. 34 in Browning's Andrea del Sarto. + +[81] +Hobbes (1588-1679): noted for his views of human nature and of +politics. According to Minto, "The merits ascribed to his style +are brevity, simplicity and precision." + +[82] +Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753): an Irish prelate noted for his +philosophical writings and especially for his theory of vision +which was the foundation for modern investigations of the subject. +"His style has always been esteemed admirable; simple, felicitous +and sweetly melodious. His dialogues are sustained with great +skill." Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature. + +[83] +We have been recently furnished with in prose: The Iliad of Homer +translated by Lang, Leaf and Myers, the first edition of which +appeared in 1882, is probably the one to which Huxley refers. The +Odyssey, translated by Butcher and Lang, appeared in 1879. Among +the best of the more recent translations of Homer are the Odyssey +by George Herbert Palmer; the Iliad by Arthur S. Way, and the +Odyssey by the same author. + +[84] +Locke (1632-1704): an English philosopher of great influence. His +chief work is An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. + +[85] +Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit: thus Francis Bacon thought. + + + +THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION (1863) + + +[86] +The Method of Scientific Investigation is an extract from the third +of six lectures given to workingmen on The Causes of the Phenomena +of Organic Nature in Darwiniana. + +[87] +these terrible apparatus: apparatus is the form for both the +singular and plural; apparatuses is another form for the plural. + +[88] +Incident in one of Moliere's plays: the allusion is to the hero, +M. Jourdain in the play, "La Bourgeois Gentilbomme." + +[89] +these kind: modern writers regard kind as singular. Shakespeare +treated it as a plural noun, as "These kind of knaves I knew." + +[90] +Newton: cf. [30]. + +[91] +Laplace (1749-1827): a celebrated French astronomer and +mathematician. He is best known for his theory of the formation of +the planetary systems, the so-called "nebular hypothesis." Until +recently this hypothesis has generally been accepted in its main +outlines. It is now being supplanted by the "Spiral Nebular +Hypothesis" developed by Professors Moulton and Chamberlin of the +University of Chicago. See Moulton's Introduction to Astronomy, p. +463. + + + +ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE (1868) + + +[92] +On the Physical Basis of Life: from Methods and Results; also +published in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews. "The substance of +this paper was contained in a discourse which was delivered in +Edinburgh on the evening of Sunday, the 8th of November, 1868-- +being the first of a series of Sunday evening addresses upon non- +theological topics, instituted by the Rev. J. Cranbrook. Some +phrases, which could possess only a transitory and local interest, +have been omitted; instead of the newspaper report of the +Archbishop of York's address, his Grace's subsequently published +pamphlet On the Limits of Philosophical inquiry is quoted, and I +have, here and there, endeavoured to express my meaning more fully +and clearly than I seem to have done in speaking--if I may judge by +sundry criticisms upon what I am supposed to have said, which have +appeared. But in substance, and, so far as my recollection serves, +in form, what is here written corresponds with what was there +said."--Huxley. + +[93] +Finner whale: a name given to a whale which has a dorsal fin. A +Finner whale commonly measures from 60 to 90 feet in length. + +[94] +A fortiori: with stronger reason: still more conclusively. + +[95] +well-known epigram: from Goethe's Venetianische Epigramme. The +following is a translation of the passage: Why do the people push +each other and shout? They want to work for their living, bring +forth children; and feed them as well as they possibly can. . . . +No man can attain to more, however much he may pretend to the +contrary. + +[96] +Maelstroms: a celebrated whirlpool or violent current in the Arctic +Ocean, near the western coast of Norway, between the islands of +Moskenaso and Mosken, formerly supposed to suck in and destroy +everything that approached it at any time, but now known not to be +dangerous except under certain conditions. Century Dictionary. +Cf. also Poe's Descent into the Maelstrom. + +[97] +Milne-Edwards (1800-1885): a French naturalist. His Elements de +Zoologie won him a great reputation. + +[98] +with such qualifications as arises: a typographical error. + +[99] +De Bary (1831-1888): a German botanist noted especially for his +researches in cryptogamic botany. + +[100] +No Man's Land: Huxley probably intends no specific geographical +reference. The expression is common as a designation of some +remote and unfrequented locality. + +[101] +Kuhne (1837-1900): a German physiologist and professor of science +at Amsterdam and Heidelberg. + +[102] +Debemur morti nos nostraque: Horace--Ars Poetica, line 63. + +As forests change their foliage year by year, +Leaves, that come first, first tall and disappear; +So antique words die out, and in their room, +Others spring up, of vigorous growth and bloom; +Ourselves and all that's ours, to death are due, +And why should words not be mortal too? + +Martin's translation. + +[103] +peau de chagrin: skin of a wild ass. + +[104] +Balzac (1799-1850): a celebrated French novelist of the realistic +school of fiction. + +[105] +Barmecide feast: the allusion is to a story in the Arabian Nights +in which a member of the Barmecide family places a succession of +empty dishes before a beggar, pretending that they contain a rich +repast. + +[106] +modus operandi: method of working. + +[107] +Martinus Scriblerus: a reference to Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus +written principally by John Arbuthnot, and published in 1741. The +purpose of the papers is given by Warburton and Spence in the +following extracts quoted from the Preface to the Memoirs of the +Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus in +Elwin and Courthope's edition of Pope's works, vol. x, p. 273:-- + +"Mr. Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Dr. Swift, in conjunction, formed the +project of a satire on the abuses of human learning; and to make it +better received, proposed to execute it in the manner of Cervantes +(the original author of this species of satire) under a continued +narrative of feigned adventures. They had observed that those +abuses still kept their ground against all that the ablest and +gravest authors could say to discredit them; they concluded, +therefore, the force of ridicule was wanting to quicken their +disgrace; and ridicule was here in its place, when the abuses had +been already detected by sober reasoning; and truth in no danger to +suffer by the premature use of so powerful an instrument." + +"The design of this work, as stated by Pope himself, is to ridicule +all the false tastes in learning under the character of a man of +capacity enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but +injudiciously in each. It was begun by a club of some of the +greatest wits of the age--Lord Oxford, the Bishop of Rochester, +Pope, Congreve, Swift, Arbuthnot, and others. Gay often held the +pen; and Addison liked it very well, and was not disinclined to +come into it." + +[108] +accounted for the operation of the meat-jack: from the paper "To +the learned inquisitor into nature, Martinus Scriblerus: the +society of free thinkers greeting." Elwin and Courthope, Pope's +works, vol. ?, p. 332. + +[109] +The remainder of the essay endeavors to meet the charge of +materialism. The following is the conclusion:-- + +"In itself it is of little moment whether we express the phaenomena +of matter in terms of spirit; or the phaenomena of spirit in terms +of matter: matter may be regarded as a form of thought, thought may +be regarded as a property of matter--each statement has a certain +relative truth. But with a view to the progress of science, the +materialistic terminology is in every way to be preferred. For it +connects thought with the other phaenomena of the universe, and +suggests inquiry into the nature of those physical conditions, or +concomitants of thought, which are more or less accessible to us, +and a knowledge of which may, in future, help us to exercise the +same kind of control over the world of thought, as we already +possess in respect of the material world; whereas, the alternative, +or spiritualistic, terminology is utterly barren, and leads to +nothing but obscurity and confusion of ideas. + +"Thus there can be little doubt, that the further science advances, +the more extensively and consistently will all the phaenomena of +Nature be represented by materialistic formulae and symbols. But +the man of science, who, forgetting the limits of philosophical +inquiry, slides from these formulae and symbols into what is +commonly understood by materialism, seems to me to place himself on +a level with the mathematician, who should mistake the x's and y's +with which he works his problems, for real entities--and with this +further disadvantage, as compared with the mathematician, that the +blunders of the latter are of no practical consequence, while the +errors of systematic materialism may paralyze the energies and +destroy the beauty of a life." + + + +ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS (1870) + + +[110] +On Coral and Coral Reefs: from Critiques and Addresses. The essay +was published in 1870. + +[111] +Sic et curalium: Thus also the coral, as soon as it touches the air +turns hard. It was a soft plant under the water. + +[112] +Boccone (1633-1704): a noted Sicilian naturalist. + +[113] +Marsigli (1658-1730): an Italian soldier and naturalist. He wrote +A Physical History of the Sea. + +[114] +"Traite du Corail": "I made the coral bloom in vases full of sea- +water, and I noticed that what we believe to be the flower of this +so-called plant was in reality only an insect similar to a little +nettle or polype. I had the pleasure to see the paws or feet of +this nettle move, and having placed the vase full of water in which +the coral was, near the fire, at a moderate heat, all the little +insects expanded, the nettle stretched out its feet and formed what +M. de Marsigli and I had taken for the petals of the flower. The +calyx of this so-called flower is the very body of the animal +issued from its cell." + +[115] +Reaumur (1683-1757): a French physiologist and naturalist, best +known as the inventor of the Reaumur thermometer. He was a member +of the French Academy of Science. + +[116] +Bishop Wilson: Thomas Wilson (1663-1755), bishop of the Isle of +Man. Details of his life are given in the folio edition of his +works (1782). An appreciation of his religious writings is given +by Matthew Arnold in Culture and Anarchy. Bishop Wilson's words, +"To make reason and the will of God prevail," are the theme of +Arnold's essay, Sweetness and Light. + +[117] +An eminent modern writer: Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), eldest son of +Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby; a distinguished critic and +poet, and professor of poetry at Oxford. The allusion is to +Arnold's essay, Sweetness and Light. The phrase, "sweetness and +light," is one which Aesop uses in Swift's Battle of the Books to +sum up the superiority of the ancients over the moderns. "As for +us, the ancients, we are content, with the bee, to pretend to +nothing of our own beyond our wings and our voice, that is to say, +our flights and our language; for the rest, whatever we have got +has been by infinite labor and search, and ranging through every +corner of nature; the difference is, that instead of dirt and +poison we have rather chose to fill our hives with honey and wax, +thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest things, which are +sweetness and light." Arnold's purpose in the essay is to define +the cultured man as one who endeavors to make beauty and +intelligence prevail everywhere. + +[118] +Abbe Trembley (1700-1784): a Swiss naturalist. He wrote "Memoires +pour servir a l'histoire d'un genre de polypes d'eau douce, a bras +en forme de cornes." + +[119] +Bernard de Jussieu (1699-1776): a French botanist; founder of the +natural classification of plants. He was superintendent of the +Trianon Gardens. + +[120] +Guettard (1715-1786): a French naturalist. + +[121] +Monte Nuovo within the old crater of Somma: Monte Nuovo, a mountain +west of Naples; Somma, a mountain north of Vesuvius which with its +lofty, semicircular cliff encircles the active cone of Vesuvius. + +[122] +Mauritius: an island in the Indian Ocean; Huxley visited the island +when on the voyage with the Rattlesnake. He wrote to his mother of +his visit: "This island is, you know, the scene of Saint Pierre's +beautiful story of Paul and Virginia, over which I suppose most +people have sentimentalized at one time or another of their lives. +Until we reached here I did not know that the tale was like the +lady's improver--a fiction founded on fact, and that Paul and +Virginia were at one time flesh and blood, and that their veritable +dust was buried at Pamplemousses in a spot considered as one of the +lions of the place, and visited as classic ground." + +[123] +Mr. Darwin's coral reefs: The Structure and Distribution of Coral +Reefs, published in 1848. + +[124] +Professor Jukes (1811-1869): an English geologist. + +[125] +Mr. Dana (1813-1895): a well-known American geologist and +mineralogist; a professor at Yale from 1845. He wrote a number of +books among which is Coral and Coral Reefs. + +[126] +Jurassic period: that part of the geological series which is older +than the Cretaceous and newer than the Triassic; so called from the +predominance of rocks of this age in the Jura Mountains. The three +great divisions of fossiliferous rocks are called the Triassic, the +Jurassic, and the Cretaceous. + + + +REFERENCE BOOKS + + +The following reference books are suggested for a more complete +treatment of various points in the text:-- + +Andrews' History of England. +Green's Short History of the English People. +Traill's Social England. +Roger's A Student's History of Philosophy. +Royce's The Spirit of Modern Philosophy. +Huxley's Life and Letters. +Smalley's Mr. Huxley, in Scribner's Magazine for October, 1905. +Darwin's Life and Letters. + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg etext of Autobiography and Selected Essays + diff --git a/old/old/aseth10.zip b/old/old/aseth10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c5eb8f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/aseth10.zip |